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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24219604">Jaded Nights</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinyfoots/pseuds/Tinyfoots'>Tinyfoots</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adventure, Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Demon/Human Relationships, Drabble Sequence, F/M, Falling In Love, First Time, Fluff and Humor, Heavy Petting, Moral Dilemmas, References to Knotting, Romance, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Slow Burn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:21:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>304</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>40,308</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24219604</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinyfoots/pseuds/Tinyfoots</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>All Sesshomaru wants is for Rin to be safe and happy. He visits her human village every so often in order to spoil her with extravagant gifts. But when he learns his unwillingness to take her with him is doing more harm than good, he decides to rip off the bandage and let her be. That is until one fateful night…</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rin/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>549</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1236</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Gift</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru visited her once a month, on the mornings following the new moon. And always bearing a gift. This time he brought her choice fabrics of silk and satin. He never said much or stayed very long, as if merely wandering through while on the way to give some unknown demon grief.</p><p>"But can't Rin come?" she would always ask when he turned to leave.</p><p>"No," he would always answer, and without stopping.</p><p>She stood under the hut's entrance, watching him fly away until he was lost from sight.</p><p>Unbeknownst to her were the worried stares from the hut adjacent to hers.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>My first SessRin fic but not my first fanfiction. I couldn't resist the urge to write it in the wake of Yashahime.</p><p>Romance isn't my strongest suit though. With this fic I intend to work on that. This story will be told in roughly 100-200 word snippets, meaning every chapter will be at least that and sometimes a little more.</p><p>Reviews are a writer's life force. I'll cherish each one. Kudos too. So no pressure if you suffer from social anxiety as I do.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Disapproving</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru found her down by the stream, helping Kagome with the wash.</p><p>On this visit, he gave the child a hairbrush, its handle crafted from jade. Foreign. Brought to shore from mainland China. But only for a moment did Rin inspect it. She set it down and stretched out her scrawny legs, which were studded with mosquito bites.</p><p>Rather turn on his heel and leave, Sesshomaru indulged Rin by sitting beside her on the lush, spring grass. "Are you well, Rin?" he asked. His voice was a deep, resonant bass. Pleasant. "Happy?"</p><p>"Oh yes, my Lord!"</p><p>As Rin prattled on about roast pork and learning how to write her name in the dirt, Sesshomaru locked eyes with Kagome.</p><p>She looked displeased.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Inferring</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"It's about Rin," Kagome said as Sesshomaru was leaving the village one day.</p><p>He couldn't understand. She never had a reason to pull him aside to talk before.</p><p>Inuyasha was with her, stalking up to her left.</p><p>"What about her," he said flatly, looking down at Kagome.</p><p>She shifted on her feet. The elder brother didn't just stare—he <em>leered.</em> "Don't you think what you're doing is a little… cruel?"</p><p>"Not at all," he answered.</p><p>"You're all she ever talks about." Inuyasha crossed his arms, distinctly uncomfortable. "Damn brat's obsessed."</p><p>Sesshomaru understood the implication of this, but only inarticulately.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You want me gone."</p><p>Kagome dared to touch Sesshomaru. The cut of his eyes was almost visceral, and she snatched the offending hand away. "Try to understand," she said.</p><p>"I've been mindful of your watching." The daiyoukai gave them both his back to stare at. White fur lay softly over one shoulder. "You feign surprise when I know you've felt my gaze upon you."</p><p>"I think it's inappropriate," Kagome admitted.</p><p>Sesshomaru was not one to speak about his motives or beliefs. That he could not be persuaded to do. He stood as still as a statue, a marble statue with eyes more red than gold. "You're inferring," he said coolly. "I suggest you put your biases in order."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. His</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru looked down on the hanyou and his wench, and amid the paddy fields declared, "Rin is mine. In every way one can belong to another, she is mine."</p>
<p>"You talk about her as if she's a thing to be claimed. <em>Inuyasha</em>…" Kagome looked to her husband for support—who chose to help by way of touching Tessaiga's hilt.</p>
<p>"Are you so eager to perish on my claws, <em>little brother</em>?"</p>
<p>Inuyasha hesitated. He threatened a demon that might endure for centuries after his natural death. He sucked in a growl and quickly sheathed his weapon. "What is she really to a bastard like you?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Affection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A passing breeze rustled hair and clothing.</p><p>Sesshomaru was glaring and hating them for fouling his intentions.</p><p>Rin was dear to him. From the very moment her perpetual following of him progressed tolerance into something more. There was purpose in having her.</p><p>Yet he feared for her. He loathed to needlessly risk her life through living dangerously, as he always had.</p><p>She was a child. She needed care he was hopeless to give. Too long he nurtured indifference that he could never be extravagant or open in the expression of his love. He had never laughed in his life. She laughed constantly. His love was the epitome of dumb adoration, inarticulate and silent, and only by the glint of golden eyes might one notice it was even there.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Happiness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"She is sad when you leave." Kagome sighed. "She is sad until you come back." With this new information, Sesshomaru began walking away from her before he meant to. "You didn't know?"</p><p>He felt himself stop. "She never told me."</p><p>"Well she wouldn't."</p><p>There was a long pause after Inuyasha spoke.</p><p>"You aren't lying to me."</p><p>"I'm so sorry, Sesshomaru," Kagome said.</p><p>But he was leaving again.</p><p>Pride he could forsake if Rin's well being meant he should stay away. Selfishness had been replaced by thoughtfulness. And the latter was the plummet dropped down into the depths of his immortal heart where pride had never been.</p><p>If Rin were to discover new ways to happy without him, then so be it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. New Moon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The new moon came and went.</p><p>Rin waited all day for him. Her stomach growled. She was late for supper. But she would be ashamed not to wait. It seemed sacrilegious not to. After all, Sesshomaru restored her life not once but twice.</p><p>Maybe he didn't want to show up empty-handed? That would be silly of him. Gifts were nice but she didn't care about them as much as he did.</p><p>As Rin continued to wonder what kept Sesshomaru, she felt a chill. An unexplainable chill one sometimes feels in cellars—or haunted rooms. But it was so strange. The evening air was hot and humid.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Bad News</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When night fell over the village, a tired voice called out for Rin.</p><p>Soon after she entered Kaede's hut. Kagome was sitting by the fire with the old woman. Rin smiled at her. But when the young miko smiled back she suddenly lost her appetite. It was the rueful kind that often came before bad news.</p><p>"Is it about Lord Sesshomaru?" she asked, taking her place between them.</p><p>Kaede and Kagome exchanged looks.</p><p>How could they forget? A child she was, but also sharp.</p><p>"It is," Kagome answered softly. "He won't be visiting anymore."</p><p>Rin didn't speak.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Mute</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin wouldn't speak for a long time, and it worried those closest to her terribly. There was only one who knew why she responded to trauma this way, and he was the reason she started talking again. Now he was gone.</p>
<p>They tried to explain, to help her understand. But none of what she heard made her feel any better. She felt abandoned. Lied to. There was an ache in her chest that threatened to lock up her vocal cords forever.</p>
<p>She regretted never learning how to whistle loudly with her fingers.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I remember listening to the Drama CD years ago and Sesshomaru telling Rin she could summon him by whistling.</p>
<p>Also fic summaries are HARD. I swear I've changed it at least five times now LOL</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Grief</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kagome carried Rin into her hut. She was alone with the child, and she was crying.</p>
<p>The miko embraced her, held her tightly with the license of a mother. It was a long time before the tears stopped, and during all those sobs she spoke softly as she rocked her. She was overwhelmed by her sadness. It seemed a sadness for something else, something beyond Rin that only included her and the demon who didn't tell her goodbye.</p>
<p>Worst of it all was that Rin even wept in her sleep.</p>
<p>Kagome wiped her own tears from the child's cheek.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Red</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin was sitting under a fig tree, her eyes misty and distant as she stared at the ground. Flies swarmed on the fallen fruit scattered about, and she looked quietly up when Inuyasha stood suddenly before her.</p>
<p>He held in his arms a brand new foal. At first glance, its black legs and hooves led her to think the animal was jet black. But only its hair and legs were dark. The rest of him was a copper-red that shone with luster in the sunlight.</p>
<p>"W… What's his name?" she asked. Her voice was a hoarse sound. The first she uttered in weeks.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. No Name</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Inuyasha made no effort to hide his smug expression. Little girls love horses—and no doubt he thought himself a genius for this idea. "Don't know," he said. "Ain't got a name. So I suggest you think of a good one."</p>
<p>"Really?" Rin was on her feet in an instant. "You really mean it?"</p>
<p>"'Course I mean it," he said, letting down the foal so it could stand on its own wobbly legs. "Granted he still needs his mother. But you want him, don't ya?"</p>
<p>The child was absolutely beaming. "Yes!" she cried. "Rin wants him. I think I'll call him… <em>Ake.</em>"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>When I was little girl, for three birthdays in a row I asked my dad for a pony. I didn't get one of course. But that didn't stop me from asking.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Blood</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the meantime, Sesshomaru lost himself completely in killing. If he was to carve himself out a vast spread of land it was of no consequence. Humans and their settlements could continue living. But anything more than a lesser youkai must perish—such as the bear demon he happened upon.</p><p>In order to satisfy his baser instincts, the sword at his hip had been neglected in favor of his claws. His wrist was coated from the stripes on down. The attack was so sudden Jaken was caught in the back splatter, and for moment he imagined the little demon as someone else, someone fairer still.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Mercy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He almost doubted his decision.</p>
<p>But, <em>Ah, </em>Sesshomaru thought. <em>To cover such a face with blood. </em></p>
<p>Had she not seen enough violence thus far in her short life?</p>
<p>Suppose he could have Rin there and she'd look beyond the gore without fear or disgust, what then? Several battles to watch her innocence crack then shatter before his eyes? That would not give happiness. Humans are unlike demons in that way.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru raised his claws, curling them slowly.</p>
<p>"Mercy!" cried his victim.</p>
<p>But he was not merciful.</p>
<p>He did not sever three of the bear's limbs, but definitely removed the fourth.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Silence</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Thank you for the subs, comments and kudos. Such joy.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The hills were rock quiet.</p><p>Shaking clean his claws, Sesshomaru sat down by the bear. Sat there and mused for days.</p><p>On the third night the kappa asked, "Mightn't we go on, milord? The body… it stinks." Abruptly he found himself staring into two slit pupils, as thin as the keenest razors ever honed.</p><p>Jaken groveled, sniveling at his Lord's boots—whose hand was raised and prepared to beat him.</p><p>"Be silent," Sesshomaru demanded, for all he wanted was a moment's meditation. "Fool that you are, get into your skull that this one has no reason to explain himself to you."</p><p>Jaken picked himself up from the dirt some 20 yards away, griping privately that after years of loyal service his lord had yet to develop milder feelings for him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Good Deeds</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Outside the horse stalls, Kaede and Inuyasha watched Rin with her foal. She, Ake, and the dam were getting better acquainted and they didn't want to intrude.</p><p>"Tis a fine colt," Kaede remarked. "Tell me, Inuyasha. How did ye pull this off?"</p><p>"Whaddya mean? Keh!" he spat. "I ain't steal him or nothing if that's what you're wondering."</p><p>"Look at him," Rin called out suddenly. "He's so hungry! Drink lots, Ake."</p><p>"What did ye give the breeder in exchange?"</p><p>"My goddamned back, that's what." Inuyasha held out his hands, showing the old miko his splinters and cuts. Three of his claws were missing. "'Said he wanted two barns and a new fence. Can you believe that?"</p><p>Nodding with approval, Kaede turned her attention back to Rin. "A fine thing ye did for her, a fine thing…"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Growth Spurt</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Time passed and Ake grew.</p>
<p>Kaede, having had many horses in her long life, was first to mention that he would be a handful. And at two years old he <em>was</em>. A real devil. Quite frankly the young stallion was just plain ornery with all who handled him. All except his owner of course, who insisted he was friendly.</p>
<p>Rin had grown too.</p>
<p>She was thirteen now, the top of her head reaching Kagome's shoulder. She had long outgrown the kimonos Lord Sesshomaru gave her. Not wanting to get rid of the clothing, she kept them safely tucked away under a loose plank in Kaede's hut.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Habits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The jade hairbrush was her most cherished item. Finely crafted, it looked the same as it did the day it had been given.</p><p>Another gift she cherished was a small hand mirror Kagome had given her for her birthday that year. She pulled it out to lay it against a cup on the floor. She had a ritual. Fifty passes through her hair. No more, no less.</p><p>"Oi," she heard from outside Kaede's hut. "Oi, Rin!"</p><p>
  <em>16, 17—</em>
</p><p>"Just a second," she said.</p><p>"What's the holdup?" Inuyasha threw back the door cover and stamped inside. "Of course," he grumbled. "Hurry it up, would ya? What's the use in gettin’ pretty before training? Hair’ll be all over your head when we're done anyway."</p><p>
  <em>22… 23? Or was that 33? </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Darn.</em>
</p><p>"Rin!"</p><p>"Okay! Jeez."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Looking</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Of course Inuyasha <em>would </em>think grooming was a waste of time. Rich coming from someone who hardly knew what a brush was. Whenever Kagome ran a comb through his mop his bellyaching could be heard for miles.</p>
<p>They walked out of the village side by side, past the torii gate and through the paddies.</p>
<p>Rin was looking around as though searching for someone. Inuyasha noticed, and at the end of the rice fields said, "He left this morning."</p>
<p>"Did Kohaku say when he would be back?" Rin had been careful to keep her voice even. But when Inuyasha turned his head her feet were suddenly the most interesting objects in the world. "It's not like I care or anything. I'm just curious."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Blush</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You're a lousy liar."</p>
<p>"Who's lying?"</p>
<p>"You <em>like</em> him." Inuyasha drew the words out slow.</p>
<p>"I-I do not."</p>
<p>"Then why are you blushing?" he asked, lifting one brow.</p>
<p>Rin was mortified. Drenched in embarrassment, she couldn't even look him in the eye. "It's just hot out here, okay?"</p>
<p>There was a brief pause.</p>
<p>"Does he know?"</p>
<p>"You wouldn't!" His rough laugh echoed loudly in her ears, which were now two shades darker. "Inuyasha!"</p>
<p>"Relax," he said as they arrived at their usual training spot—a hill with a clear view of the village. "I'm only teasing. Your secret's safe with me."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. True Passion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin's interest in swords was much stronger than her interest in bows and arrows. In fact, it was a feeling that was feverish, if not appreciative. Yet she did not know what she needed to learn. Only that somewhere out there roamed a ghost who, in a past life, might have cultivated this passion. It was an old hurt but a hurt nonetheless.</p>
<p>It was Kagome's idea to have Inuyasha train her.</p>
<p>Rin rolled her shoulders, trying to work out the kink in her neck. They had been training all afternoon, and now he was ranting and raving about something.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Loosen Up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"How many times do I have to tell you?" Inuyasha was practically barking. "Don't be so stiff."</p><p>Obviously she was not proficient yet, but her swordsmanship was markedly better compared to what it was last winter. Besides, the old blade Rin wielded did not suit her. It didn't slice through the air like she thought it should; it didn't feel like an extension of her hand.</p><p>Despite her exhaustion, she set into her stance anyway, which, unsurprisingly, was not unlike Inuyasha's.</p><p>"Alright." He flicked Tessaiga and slid the sword back into its scabbard. "You've sweat enough. Let's head back."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Hot Stepper</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was dusk when they arrived at the village. Smoke rose from Inuyasha's hut. Kagome was cooking, and he made a b-line for it.</p>
<p>Half-starved herself, Rin decided to join them for dinner.</p>
<p>But she never got there.</p>
<p>Rin saw him leaning on a garden post. Kohaku. But she didn't want him to see her. Not right now. She was sweaty, her hair wild in its ponytail. And she stunk. At least she thought she did.</p>
<p>She whirled.</p>
<p>Her walk was brisk, almost jerky.</p>
<p>
  <em>Don't turn around. Don't turn around. </em>
</p>
<p>"Rin," a male voice called after her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Monkeys</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kohaku flustered her. Actually, not quite—her reaction to his height and good looks flustered her.</p>
<p>At first she was composed, and he talked. "I went after a monkey demon today," he said. Then she tried to be more composed, and when he smiled dimples came with it. In the end, he charmed her out of her composure. She didn't know what to do with her hands. It shouldn't be so hard to look directly at someone. She knew that much.</p>
<p>"But there were actually two monkeys," Kohaku went on.</p>
<p>She watched him in profile, staring at his jaw as her heart thundered.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Hang In There</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"So I hear you're getting pretty good with a sword."</p><p>Rin straightened. "People are talking?"</p><p>"Not exactly," Kohaku replied. "But you are training with Inuyasha."</p><p>"I guess." She looked away in uncertainty.</p><p>"Don't tell me Rin's doubting herself."</p><p>"It's not that." Unable to look him in the eye, she stared past his shoulder and at Inuyasha's hut. The cover moved. They were being watched. "I wish I had my own weapon. One made just for me."</p><p>For a moment Kohaku seemed to be thinking. "That <em>is</em> a problem," he muttered. "Maybe…"</p><p>She perked up. "Maybe what? Oh please tell me."</p><p>"I can't say yet." He saw her frown. "You're a fast learner, though. Maybe a slayer one day. Keep at it," he said, patting her head.</p><p>Rin watched him leave. She knew exactly what that gesture meant, and resented it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>You'll be alight, Rin. Growing up is hard for everyone.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Limbo</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Time flowed differently for demons. Days looped. Sunrises blended with sunsets. In fact, it took mere weeks for years to pass.</p><p>The hurt was still fresh for Sesshomaru. </p><p>Food had no taste. Killing gave little reprieve. He hardly slept. When he did often his mind would torment him; her face being the image he was tormented with.</p><p>Even in the company of others he remained comparatively alone. He was morose and solitary. Uncompanionable. There was Jaken of course, and the occasional demoness to distract him—to keep his bloodline open. But they didn't stay long. There wasn't a kingdom yet. Just miles of land he had yet to cull of other demonkind.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Stranger</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Night.</p>
<p>While Jaken slept like a corpse, Sesshomaru sat deathly still on top of a boulder. The moon broke through the cloud cover, reflecting in his golden eyes an eerie virescent gleam. Truly he could look on anything he wished. No matter how dark he saw his surroundings perfectly.</p>
<p>Suddenly he stood, breathing in deeply, and remained so for perhaps a full minute.</p>
<p>The direction of the wind changed, and with it something most concerning. A slight as disturbing as discovering some stranger's urine on one's own border, or in this case, his presence.</p>
<p>Jaken stirred, sensing it too though he knew not what. "Milord?"</p>
<p>"Come," Sesshomaru said. "We fly."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for the comments, kudos, and subs. You guys are awesome.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. Of His Kind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru knew there would be a confrontation. It was inevitable. He dared to travel too far north, deep into the backyard of another Inuyoukai.</p>
<p>There he was in the flesh, reasonably dressed, silky white hair plaited in a tail down his back. "You," he started. "Who died and gave you the right?"</p>
<p>Sesshomaru immediately drew Bakusaiga, wasting no time on elaborate preliminaries. "Jaken," he said.</p>
<p>"Y-yes, milord?"</p>
<p>"<em>Run."</em></p>
<p>Jaken nearly jumped out of his skin, and like a lizard scrambled away.</p>
<p>"So," came the Inuyoukai's low voice. He too gripped his sword, and it crackled as he pulled it. "It <em>is</em> my land that you want."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0030"><h2>30. Draw</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Swords clashed. Blasts were evaded. Whenever one struck for the kill the attack was simply countered or cut empty air. The flurry of strikes ceased for a moment here and there, only to quickly resume again. Both were skilled, and neither would yield so much as an inch.</p><p>It was decided.</p><p>They sheathed their weapons. After all, this could be settled another way.</p><p>"I wish to know the name of my enemy." The Inuyoukai was flatly obliged. "Ho? So you're the great general's son."</p><p>"Indeed."</p><p>"Very well then. Know that, I, Tak—"</p><p>"I care not who you are."</p><p>"Arrogant bastard," the Inuyoukai snarled, his eyes glowing red. "Crossing blades is one thing, but you're three-hundred years too early if you think I'll die by your fangs."</p><p>"Is that what you believe?" Sesshomaru's face was distorted with the beginnings of his own transformation. "That may be true," he said, his mouth stretching wide, and jutting out with a number of sharp teeth. "But you'll never say it again."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0031"><h2>31. Ruin</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaken crawled through utter ruin.</p><p>It was as though a storm had moved through the forest. Trees lay uprooted or snapped in two, the earth was scorched, giving off harmful clouds of miasma. Many failed to escape, proving once again that Sesshomaru was indeed the enemy of life.</p><p>Jaken followed a trail of blood and fur. The corpse it had led him to was not his Lord's, and slowly he backed away from it. This was disconcerting. Sesshomaru killed cleanly, often with a single strike.</p><p>He never desired that demon's territory.</p><p>He wanted to fight someone durable enough to withstand his frustrations. And judging from the mangled state of the body he did exactly that.</p><p><em>Crazy dog, </em>Jaken thought. <em>Are you so miserable that we all must live tensely?</em></p><p>"Lord Sesshomaru!" he called out. "Lord Sessho—"</p><p>That's when he saw him walking amongst the destruction. He was covered in blood and debris, his left arm dangling uselessly in its long sleeve.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0032"><h2>32. Class Of His Own</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Fragments of metal fell from Sesshomaru's shoulders, littering the ground with scraps of enchanted armor.</p><p>"Master!" Jaken cried. He threw down his staff and bowed so low his head touched the ground. "How may I serve you, milord?"</p><p>Even when his Lord limped he did so in a way that was almost dignified. A lesser dog would have died, but not Sesshomaru. His grip on life was too strong, the blood in his veins in a class of its own. Already Jaken could feel the weight of his invisible strength, his demonic aura working to put back together what had been separated from bone and muscles.</p><p>"Water," Sesshomaru said simply, dismissing the imp. Then he staggered, and fell to the ground, but sat himself against a tree at once.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>We'll be with Rin for a while in the next updates.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0033"><h2>33. Lady Mother</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru recovered. He was still leaning against the tree several days later when he sensed a spirit not unlike his own. No doubt the immense aura of his mother.</p>
<p>"All I require to find you, Sesshomaru, is follow the scent of poison and blood." She approached on graceful feet, stopping to stare down on him. For a moment she remained there, regarding him with silent indifference as her furs settled around her.</p>
<p>Jaken greeted her first. "My Lady," he said, bowing low.</p>
<p>"Hn?" She looked around, not at all concerned with the little demon or her son's physical condition. "You are short of one," she remarked. "The girl-child."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I swear we'll get back to Rin sooner than later. I just really enjoy writing Sesshomaru's mother.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0034"><h2>34. Suggestion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Gone."</p><p>"Was she not in your care?"</p><p>"No longer."</p><p>"So, you are bereaved. How regretful for you then." Her hollow sympathies settled in the silence for only a moment. "Might I suggest another? Humans are constantly at war with each other, and there are many orphans."</p><p>Jaken flinched and slowly backed away.</p><p>The scathing glare Sesshomaru sent up at her could persuade fires to burn hotter. "Why are you here? Did you come down from your lofty castle just to stuff my ears with nonsense? Spare me, mother."</p><p>"Such things you say!" she exclaimed, feigning offense she didn't feel. "I'll have you know I came here not only to console you but to talk politics."</p><p>"Politics," Sesshomaru repeated. He sat a little straighter. "Very well, mother. You have my attention."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0035"><h2>35. Drudgery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The drudgery of village life bored Rin. She wanted adventure. She wanted excitement. She wanted what so many wagging fingers and chastising voices denied her. Many nights she spent waiting for the day she could declare herself an adult, so that she might accompany Kagome and the others on a quest far beyond those godforsaken paddy fields.</p><p>What good is having a horse if he never gets to stretch his legs? Rin asked herself the question as she hauled yet another load of wash.</p><p>She couldn't understand it. She was obedient. Kind, caring, respectful. When Kaede told her to do something did she not jump to obey? So why couldn't she roam if she wanted too?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0036"><h2>36. Free</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>To hell with this.</em>
</p><p>Rin dropped the bundle of wash under the lines, refusing to hang up so much as a single sock. It was her fourteenth summer, and inside Kaede's hut she changed into a breezy linen kimono.</p><p>She felt a tinge of guilt as she tied her long hair high on her head.</p><p>It quickly passed.</p><p>Rin was attracted to nature. There had been no change in her heart. It was the nights under dark skies still clinging to her. Sadness lurked in confined, simple living. And while good for many, it didn't suit her. She needed to be free and on the loose. Away and at large.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0037"><h2>37. The Vain</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ake was a beautiful horse, one that Rin spoiled with affection. Love and attention that he was all too eager to relish in. Perhaps, at times, too much. Ake the Vain, she sometimes referred to him as. It was true. He was the haughtiest beast on four hooves, that was certain.</p><p>Rin could whistle quite loudly these days.</p><p>With his head held high, Ake pranced among the others behind the fence looking neither right nor left.</p><p>She saddled him and rode through the village until reaching the torii gate. Then she kicked him into the gallop she felt necessary to break away without anyone noticing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0038"><h2>38. Silk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin disappeared often, riding off without saying where she was going, but always coming back. She loved the wilderness, loved the forest in its thickest, most undisturbed form.</p><p>Sometimes she would stop and look up at the sky, wondering about the journeys that took Lord Sesshomaru away. Other times she remembered the sharpness with which his eyes observed his surroundings, and how they'd soften when focused on her.</p><p>Her brows furrowed as she swayed with Ake's four-beat gait.</p><p>
  <em>Was it one stripe or two?</em>
</p><p>To think she couldn't recall. She did remember the crescent moon and the float of silver hair…</p><p>How soft the fur. How supple the silk.</p><p>There had been a delicacy about him that even now she didn't know the word to describe it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Again thank you for the reviews, subs and kudos. SO MANY KUDOS! It means a lot to me.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0039"><h2>39. Slayer's Cache</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>One day, Rin returned to the village from wherever it was that she went. Kagome and Sango were outside talking. They smiled at her. Before anyone knew it, she had grown tall enough to peer over Kagome's head and directly into Sango's eyes.</p>
<p>"Kohaku brought you something," Sango told her, hiking her fourth child—a boy—on one hip.</p>
<p>"What is it?"</p>
<p>"Something Lady Kaede didn't want inside," Kagome answered with a grin. "We left it by the front door."</p>
<p>Curious, Rin went home and discovered a bundle. She unwrapped it and inside found two twin daggers. The <em>blades</em> were serrated and made of panther fang, the hilts of wood and steel. She pulled the ordinary sword that was sheathed in her sash and set it on the ground.</p>
<p>The daggers felt perfect in her hands.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0040"><h2>40. Banter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>And Rin trained hard with those daggers. Even traveled with Inuyasha from time to time in order to use them.</p>
<p>They rode on the back of Ake, who, at five years old had become a truly magnificent horse. Inuyasha sat behind her, his back to hers, and all the while giving her shit about her weapons of choice. "Long blades are more useful," he said. "It puts space between you and the bastard you're trying to cut."</p>
<p>"I can just as easily throw one between a demon's eyes."</p>
<p>"Is that right?"</p>
<p>"Yup," she said. "Cat fangs are stronger than dog fangs."</p>
<p>"I'm insulted."</p>
<p>"That's the idea."</p>
<p>"<em>Ha ha. </em>Yeah that's real funny." Inuyasha stuffed his hands into his sleeves. "And can't this pack mule of yours go any faster? We'd be better off walking."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If Ake is five that means Rin is now sixteen, a bit older than what Kagome was when she first met Inuyasha. ^v^</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0041"><h2>41. Trouble</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The trouble began when Rin decided to ride Ake through a river a few hours before sunset. The current was gentle and haunch high at its deepest, and she was almost across when her horse let out an ear-piercing whinny.</p>
<p>Truly the worst sound she had ever heard.</p>
<p>Ake limped out of the water but was otherwise not badly injured. There was a deep, bleeding gash on one leg, however. But Rin was prepared. She carried on his back and saddlebags not only a bedroll and an extra change of clothing, but also emergency horse feed and medical supplies.</p>
<p>She cleaned and stitched the wound, just how Kagome had taught her. When she was done, she spoke softly to Ake, stroking his face as he nudged her other hand for food. She fed him then set out to gather firewood.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0042"><h2>42. Old Fear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The fire crackled and the wind rustled through the trees.</p>
<p>Rin had been asleep but an hour when she heard the pants of <em>many</em>. She sat up with a start, straining into the inky blackness of night.</p>
<p>Her heart leapt into her throat.</p>
<p>All around her glowed the eyes of wolves, six or more hovering just beyond the light of the fire. They were extremely lean, mere skin and bones with strings for muscles.</p>
<p>She stood, and in that same movement drew both daggers and cut Ake free from his reins. A slap sent him trotting into the dark. The wolves did not give chase, and she was thankful for that.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0043"><h2>43. Closing In</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The wolves pressed tentatively forward, closing the circle inch by inch until a few lengths away.</p>
<p>Rin stared defiantly into the yellow eyes of the largest wolf. It seemed there was nothing menacing about him, what with the wistful tilt of his head.</p>
<p>She knew better.</p>
<p>That was the longing gaze of hunger, and she was so much meat.</p>
<p>Rin would fight. It was too late to run away. She assumed a striking stance, with one blade held low and the other high.</p>
<p>The large male sprang and was immediately struck dead. Then another after him, which she cut down too.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0044"><h2>44. Last Stand</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin drew blood whenever one lunged at her; and instantly the snarling wolf, with a great bound and a yelp, announced that one such dagger had indeed cut its target.</p>
<p>Now, three lay dead while the remaining four conspired.</p>
<p>"Go away!" she shouted. "Leave me!"</p>
<p>One after the other the wolves feigned a charge at her. They did this over and over, rushing in for a bite and springing lightly away at the last second.</p>
<p>Jaws snapped by her ears like scissors.</p>
<p>She screamed when teeth closed on her arm. She shrieked when suddenly pulled to the ground—where she plunged the remaining dagger deep into the neck of the wolf, giving as good as she got.</p>
<p>The wolf collapsed on her chest, and as it relaxed into death she saw a thread of light.</p>
<p>Then she heard a chorus of yelps.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0045"><h2>45. Reunion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Y-you," Rin stammered. She could hardly believe who she was staring at. "Lord Sesshomaru… You… <em>Oh my god!"</em></p>
<p>"Calm yourself."</p>
<p>"<em>Oh my god</em>," Rin said again. She kept repeating it, like a chant. No other words sufficed.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru was stalking down on her when the tears came. He knelt before her on the ground, trying in his habitual detachment to comprehend the reason for these tears when her expression was so happy. She must be in shock. Her sleeve was torn and soaked in blood. "Show me your injury—"</p>
<p>He felt himself being yanked.</p>
<p>Rin embraced him, and he let her do it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0046"><h2>46. Remoter Scent</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Rin's tears flowed freely, Sesshomaru stood on his feet, and still locked to her. "You saved me again," she said, wrapping one arm behind his neck.</p>
<p>When he looked at her his expression had hardly moved. But truly he was wild with relief. He almost didn't come. He wasn't sure of the scent. It had changed that much.</p>
<p>"Where did you go?" she asked him softly.</p>
<p>For a moment he was incapable of speech. His heart was vibrating in his chest. His own blood surging too fast for him. "Your injuries," he managed.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru was aware of the placement of his claws. Too aware.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Finally! Someone Rin had lost at last just found her. There's sure to be much to discuss and discover between these two ... and to unpack.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0047"><h2>47. Too Freely</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He had swept Rin into his arms, with one hand curved around her ribs, the other behind her knees. It seemed nothing for him. So easy was it to lift her.</p><p>Rin had also felt him stiffen.</p><p>Abruptly she realized that perhaps Sesshomaru was not comfortable with how they were arranged. She had forgotten, took liberties with his person and touched too freely. He had always been, in every sense, a demon of disdain and evasion, as though physical displays of affection were a great offense to his nature.</p><p>And there she was bleeding on his kimono, his hair gripped in her fingers.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0048"><h2>48. Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Lord Sesshomaru… Will you not tell me?" Again his name on her lips. It was the sweetest sound. "You don't have to tell me anything, but I can't stand not knowing why you left me alone."</p>
<p>The moon was but a sliver.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru could tell by the way her eyes searched she could hardly make him out. They were still large, only now in proportion with her face. "There are more important matters," he said, his feet moving now. "Have yourself tended to, and perhaps I'll explain."</p>
<p>"Okay." Rin buried her face in his fur. "We can talk about it later. We have a lot of time to talk to each other."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0049"><h2>49. Mortal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru didn't agree. He couldn't dream of understanding how a human perceived time. He had just left her in the village, and so much had changed within that short stretch of separation. His mind was not entirely comfortable with the thought.</p><p>He loathed to acknowledge it. Resented that he would resist every prick of mortality while she decayed.</p><p>And already a fraction of her life gone.</p><p>Yet wary contentment filled him. He knew it was not wise to dote on a mortal, but he also knew he would do so without let or restraint anyway. Having her would give him private satisfaction. For five years he had not savored her. For five years there had been a vacancy in his heart.</p><p>Now Rin was his to possess, and the joy was all his. However bittersweet it was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Interpret this chapter how you will.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0050"><h2>50. Not Without</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Wait!" Suddenly Rin remembered. "We can't leave him."</p>
<p>"Who can't we leave?"</p>
<p>"My horse. Ake."</p>
<p>"A-un grazes not far from here," Sesshomaru didn't stop, and she writhed in his arms. "He is more useful than a horse—and be still."</p>
<p>"I can't," she said.</p>
<p>"You can't what."</p>
<p>"Keep still, my Lord."</p>
<p>"What must I say to make you understand? We will see to your arm."</p>
<p>"But it is not broken," Rin insisted. "And Ake is very dear to me. He was given to me after you…" He stopped, saying nothing. "I will not leave him—I'll not go with you without him."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0051"><h2>51. Deja Vu</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaken was crossing the grass to welcome back Sesshomaru when he stopped dead in his tracks.</p>
<p>Immediately there were concerns.</p>
<p>His mind was made. His Lord is a masochist. Incapable of learning the lesson of leaving humans alone. The girl he held confirmed it and nothing would convince him otherwise.</p>
<p>Jaken was relieved he finally decided to overcome his grief with another. But surely there are healthier ways to go about it. This one had an uncanny likeness to she who cannot be named. Throughout the years many a well-thrown rock reminded him of such whenever his tongue had slipped.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0052"><h2>52. Old Friend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Who is she, milord?"</p>
<p>Sesshomaru let her down gently, as though her legs were injured and not her arm. "Are you blind, Jaken?"</p>
<p>"No, milord. And my sincerest apologies for sticking my nose where it doesn't belong. I was only wondering—"</p>
<p>"Master Jaken!"</p>
<p>
  <span>Rin swooped upon Jaken, hugging him—who was stunned quiet and could only let it happen. For a moment, that is. “Now see here!” he said, struggling to break free. “I don’t care how big you are. How dare you hug me.” </span>
</p>
<p>"I've missed you too," Rin said, not the least bit concerned with his protests.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0053"><h2>53. Watched</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaken was ordered to make a fire. When he was done with that he was told to fetch water so Rin could clean and bandage her wounds. The bite bled worse than it seemed. A week of sitting still and she would be fine.</p><p>Crickets droned as Jaken quietly roasted himself a newt.</p><p>Sesshomaru propped himself against a tree, as was his custom. He was facing away from them, pretending to be disinterested when really he watched her. His eyes followed her through everything. From wrapping her arm to the way she brushed her hair long after the strands had become silk. She was easy to look at. Perhaps too easy. But that wasn't at the forefront of his mind.</p><p>He remembered clearly the day he gave her that brush.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0054"><h2>54. Untouched</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin's arm was tended to, which meant Sesshomaru had to talk to her now. She left Jaken by the fire to sit next to him on the ground. Far enough not to invade personal space yet close enough to smell him. Warm rain and pine. That's what he smelled like. And something else uniquely him. Preternatural leapt to mind. <em>Inhuman. </em></p>
<p>Suddenly she didn't know what to say. With the drama of yet another near death experience behind her, there was time to reflect. Rin almost couldn't believe he was sitting beside her. He was so still. So inanimate. So perfectly untouched by time.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0055"><h2>55. Wicked</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You hesitate."</p><p>He glanced at her, and Rin had watched the silver hair slip from his shoulder and onto his lap. "I just needed a moment."</p><p>"Of course."</p><p>"Why did you leave?" She gripped the inside of her sleeves. Or rather what remained of them.</p><p>"To live as a demon."</p><p>"Oh." That was all she said for a while. She hoped to hear more but Sesshomaru had always been one of few words. "Did you prosper?"</p><p>"I lived."</p><p>"So all this time you…"</p><p>"Killed?" he asked, ending her sentence. She nodded slowly. "Indeed I have. Does this disturb you, Rin? Do you think me wicked?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for the kudos!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0056"><h2>56. Implication</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Not at all," Rin answered with pure conviction. Then a light came into her eyes, and with a smile she continued. "I know what you are. I assume you chose that path because it was necessary for you."</p><p>"So…" He brought out the word. "You've accepted that reason intellectually. But I should warn you acceptance is not enough."</p><p>"I'm trying to understand." Rin took a deep breath. "Please speak plainly."</p><p>"There is another reason," he said after a pause, and in the pause some creature cried in the distance. "What else were you told?"</p><p>"I think I was told a few things."</p><p>"That something was implied?"</p><p>A few seconds of awkward silence between them.</p><p><em>They </em>had not if her face was any indication.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0057"><h2>57. Sorries</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru let it be. "You were dishonest. You told me you were happy."</p><p>"I wanted to be with you." Rin kept her voice low so only he would hear. "I'm sorry."</p><p>"Unnecessary," he said. "You were a child then."</p><p>"I'm not a child now."</p><p>The corners of her mouth twitched, and he saw the white of her teeth. "Still," he said, looking away and shifting against the tree, "spare me your sorries. I don't much care for regrets and grievings. And I should think we have far more interesting things to discuss."</p><p>"Like what?" Rin wondered.</p><p>Now he needed a moment.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0058"><h2>58. Buttoned Up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Perhaps some other time."</p><p>"I think," Rin started to say. Her eyes were heavy and she yawned to fight off sleep. "I think you have no idea what to ask me."</p><p>"I'd rather you not presume what I do and do not know."</p><p>"I'm sure you do, my Lord. It's just… Well, you would have asked already." That clasped him up tight. Not that there <em>was a</em> simple way to ask what kind of person she had become to begin with. "The first thing that jumps into your head," she said, yawning again. Then she moved a little nearer to him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0059"><h2>59. Lovely Idea</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Are you happy now?"</p><p>"Mm," she mumbled. "Very happy."</p><p>"Why do you lean against me?"</p><p>"Because I'm tired."</p><p>"Tired and happy..."</p><p>A long pass into silence, so long that at last Sesshomaru spoke her name. But Rin was fast asleep. Nestled into his fur and fast asleep. It seemed cruel to wake her just to tell her to move, so he sighed and let her stay.</p><p>For a while he just sat there, stock still, ignoring Jaken—who uttered some shocked little noise—and the horde of thoughts crowding at the back of his mind. Then he realized<strong>—</strong>a restful night's sleep.</p><p>Lovely idea, that.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0060"><h2>60. Handled</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Sesshomaru awoke he noticed his obi fit looser than it had when he fell asleep.</p>
<p>Had Rin… <em>handled</em> him?</p>
<p>Had he slept that soundly?</p>
<p>He remembered a resounding drum in his ears last night. It was comforting, each throb running into the next throb until he learned to distinguish his heartbeat from hers.</p>
<p>His lips shaped the first letter of her name, but he changed his mind.</p>
<p>If she had touched she probably didn't mean it.</p>
<p>With a sweep of his fur, much too slight for Rin to feel, he moved her. Carefully, he arranged her on the grass, the gesture so delicate and personal it was almost intimate.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0061"><h2>61. Madly In Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>So deep was her sleep and wild her dreams, Rin did not immediately stir. She lay unmoving, feeling velvet between the webs of her fingers.</p>
<p>At last she opened her eyes and saw silver. Then she sat up and saw him.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru didn't leer at her. Didn't appear annoyed. He simply stared.</p>
<p>"Stop gaping and move," Jaken said rudely. "Get up quickly—and don't fall so madly in love with our Lord's fur that you make a habit of sleeping with it."</p>
<p>Sage advice. Rin was instantly self-conscious. While she slept she had gathered more fur than what was polite. So much that Sesshomaru had willed it longer than its usual length.</p>
<p>Her cheeks burned with the thought.</p>
<p>Was that done for his comfort or hers?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0062"><h2>62. Keyed Up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Why don't you change your wrappings? I see you are bleeding through them."</p>
<p>"Oh, yes. Thank you," Rin said, as if his were a remarkable suggestion. But she just stood there.</p>
<p>"Over there." He pointed a claw to where her things were. "There's a spring nearby if you wish to bathe," he added, and she started to walk. Then she stopped.</p>
<p>"Where?"</p>
<p>Sesshomaru appeared to be looking on something in the distance. He turned slowly to her, and just as slowly, <em>smoothly </em>answered, "There<em>.</em>" His eyes slanted in the direction she needed to go. "Beyond the trees."</p>
<p>"R-right."</p>
<p>What would her Lord need to do to lead her straight off a cliff? Speak deeply, to begin with. And have his white hand comb through a luxurious head of silver hair.</p>
<p>He watched her nervous movements as she gathered supplies.</p>
<p>"Say, milord," Jaken asked, approaching, "what do you suppose it is she's keyed up about?"</p>
<p>Sesshomaru was sure he didn't know.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0063"><h2>63. Mushrooms</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Upon Rin's return, she discovered Sesshomaru had left.</p>
<p>Jaken was not pleased and made no effort to keep his griping at a respectable volume. She wasn't exactly thrilled about it either. The gesture was appreciated, but she didn't <em>need</em> supervision. She could just as easily defend Jaken's small self despite her bandaged arm.</p>
<p>She checked Ake's leg, annoyance slipping from her as quickly as it came. When she turned him loose to graze she decided to find something to eat herself.</p>
<p>"Off to pick wild mushrooms?" Jaken asked sneeringly. "Perhaps steal a melon or two?"</p>
<p>Rin had only been half-listening.</p>
<p>She saw something move behind him, and her hand touched the hilt of one dagger. Before the imp could say another thing, she threw it across the grass and hit a rabbit square in its throat.</p>
<p>"Perhaps not, Master Jaken."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0064"><h2>64. Restless</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Three sunrises and sunsets and still no Lord Sesshomaru.</p>
<p>There's no telling when he would return.</p>
<p>Needless to say, Rin was less than pleased with all the sitting still. In a past life she would have been content to wait for his coming back. But now at sixteen she harbored a restlessness that demanded to be satisfied by riding through forests and open glades.</p>
<p>It had been a week since she left the village. And though her disappearing for several or so days was not unusual, she knew if she did not return soon worry would begin to creep into more than a few hearts. One of which much older than the others.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0065"><h2>65. Defiance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning Rin came to a decision.</p>
<p>She strode past Jaken and saddled Ake. Gripping the reins in one hand, Rin had one foot in the stirrup when she heard, "And <em>where</em> do you think you're going, young lady?"</p>
<p>"Back," she said, mounting her horse. "I have to tell Lady Kaede and the others—"</p>
<p>"You most certainly do not." Jaken marched up to Rin, and as he talked he raised his staff as if to scold her with it. "Lord Sesshomaru explicitly stated for you to remain here."</p>
<p>"I'm sure he did, Master Jaken. But he'll have to forgive me as I cannot keep still any longer." Then she kicked Ake into a quick trot, but soon winced. Her arm was still sore.</p>
<p>"Rin! Rin, you unruly—get back this instant!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0066"><h2>66. Gone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru expected a warm welcome, not just from one or the other, but both wards at once.</p>
<p>Instead, he had gotten neither, and it was a cause for wonder.</p>
<p>He looked around the camp and saw that he was presently <em>Rin-less, </em>and that she wasn't just gone but quite so. She had even packed her things.</p>
<p>"Milord…"</p>
<p>"Explain."</p>
<p>As Jaken fumbled with his words, Sesshomaru cut him a glance, making it clear that he should be a very sorry imp indeed if his beak didn't produce what he needed to hear. Jaken spoke quickly. "She mentioned returning to her village."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0067"><h2>67. Demands</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was dusk when Sesshomaru caught up with Rin.</p>
<p>He landed softly several yards in front of her, waiting for her to climb off Ake.</p>
<p>"I had liked for you to stay put."</p>
<p>Hearing this prickled Rin.</p>
<p>He had only come to make demands. She didn't much care for being told what to do at the best of times. Did he lack awareness? Fail to realize that their dynamic should be, at least, a little different now? How did he see her as he stood there anyway? She was nervous to ask.</p>
<p>"It bothers me to sit still," she managed to say.</p>
<p>"You shouldn't feel that way."</p>
<p>Rin wrinkled her nose at him. "With all due respect, my Lord, you cannot tell me how to feel."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0068"><h2>68. Clean Boots</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin must have given her caretakers sweet hell throughout the years. Wild and jovial in spirits, faithful in her attachments, respectful in her speech while not entirely obedient. Not the easiest type to reprimand. Not that Sesshomaru desired to anyway. He thought this amusing in the privacy of his mind, because he had no need for another sniveling bootlicker.</p>
<p>"Rin," he said softly. "I think you hear commands when really they are suggestions."</p>
<p>"You mean…" He raised a brow, as if to say <em>'I understand you.' </em>"Oh." Clearly Rin had misunderstood. Either that or Jaken relayed the wrong message.</p>
<p>Then Sesshomaru reached into his clothing and pulled out something that gleamed. An emerald green kimono with gold stitching. Red flowers were embroidered around the collar and sleeves.</p>
<p>"I thought you could use this," he said, extending it towards her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I don't like misunderstandings that stretch on and on for no good reason. :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0069"><h2>69. Demon Silk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin smoothed her fingers over cool silk. She had not been able to wear such finery in years. "This is…"</p>
<p>"Demon silk? Indeed."</p>
<p>"It's beautiful."</p>
<p>"More than that." Sesshomaru gave Rin another moment to marvel. "You will discover its mysteries as you wear it."</p>
<p>"I don't know how to thank you," she said, holding the kimono close to her chest. She wanted to kiss him, where bold magenta decorated his face. But she knew he would never allow that. So it was with her eyes that she kissed him there.</p>
<p>"You can thank me by wearing it," he suggested. Then, as he started for the forest, "I'm going back now, Rin. You will follow me if it pleases you."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0070"><h2>70. Hold Your Tongue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"It's not that I don't want to follow you. It's just…"</p>
<p>Sesshomaru whirled. Then he stalked upon her, long limbs moving silkily under his garments.</p>
<p>Rin straightened as he approached, but shrank now that he stood several hand lengths from her face. He towered over her. "Lord Sesshomaru… you. What I mean to say is…"</p>
<p>"Stop that," he said. "Holding your tongue."</p>
<p>Rin took a deep breath. "But it is so difficult with you."</p>
<p>"Perhaps. But for this one you will do it. You won't find me such a hard listener. Only a patient one."</p>
<p>"Then I want you to follow me."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0071"><h2>71. Snark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Never cared much for following."</p>
<p>"I don't doubt that."</p>
<p>"That is to say, you wish for me to escort you to your village?"</p>
<p>His eyes followed Rin's hand as she smoothed it over Ake's neck. The horse was sweaty. She had run him hard.</p>
<p>"If<em> 'escort'</em> is the word my Lord feels comfortable with…"</p>
<p>His fangs came together with an audible snap. Definitely better than a sniveling fool. Her polite little stabs of snark. It almost curled his mouth he was so amused. "Very well then, Rin. We can walk all night if you wish."</p>
<p>"Oh, no," she said, and patting Ake's back. "Neither of us can do that."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0072"><h2>72. Shiver</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>So they settled down for the night, in the dark woods, with only a small fire between them.</p>
<p>Rin had washed and changed into her new robe, repurposing the fabric of her old one into linen bandages.</p>
<p>For Sesshomaru, seeing her in the kimono had been worth upsetting her. More than once he ordered the seamstress to stitch it again, until in his eyes the result was greatly satisfactory. The silk was alive. By the way it clung every movement was as though a shiver, giving the allure of easy grace.</p>
<p>Her mouth wouldn't stop moving. Words all the time. But he didn't mind it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0073"><h2>73. Lazy Lion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru stretched himself out on the ground, much like a lazy lion. With one hand supporting his head, a leg bent at the knee, to anyone else he would appear bored.</p>
<p>Not to Rin. She was flattered by this.</p>
<p>After an hour of nonstop chatter, she still had his undivided attention. Her Lord was simply unbothered. Could only be unbothered because he hadn't a reason to be alert. There isn't anything in the forest more threatening than him.</p>
<p>That is until a branch snapped. Under a hoof, Rin supposed.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru only shifted enough to turn his face into profile. The angle of his jaw and lips were beautiful to look at. Hard, hard not to stare. Why, she was even drawn to the slightest gesture. Like when he yawned, and his lip came down over the white fang teeth.</p>
<p>He glanced at her, but her eyes were fixed on the dying fire.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0074"><h2>74. Intimate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After so much talk, there was one thing Rin didn't mention.</p>
<p>"Help me understand something about you," Sesshomaru said.</p>
<p>"I'll try."</p>
<p>"Why daggers?"</p>
<p>"Well, why not, my Lord?"</p>
<p>"<em>Hmph," </em>he grunted. "A petite like you using blades that short. The shorter the more intimate the thrust." Crickets chirped. Rin started to say something but her voice clipped. Sesshomaru saw a flash of innocent confusion in her face and narrowed his eyes in secret amusement for her. "Proximity to the enemy, Rin."</p>
<p>"Oh!" She kept looking at him and away. "I don't think about it. They were also a gift—from a slayer friend."</p>
<p>"This '<em>slayer' </em>should have given you a katana. Would be more practical."</p>
<p>Rin couldn't help but giggle. "You sound just like Inuyasha. He said something similar." Sesshomaru scoffed. "What? He taught me how to use a sword proper, you know."</p>
<p>Another scoff.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A shameless play on words. Forgive me.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0075"><h2>75. Shudder</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When they were silent, it was an easy silence.</p>
<p>Rin lay on the ground, near the fire. She wanted to sleep but couldn't get comfortable. The grass wasn't as soft as before. Tossing and turning, she cursed the wolves who destroyed her bedroll in their attack.</p>
<p>"Have my fur if you are so uncomfortable."</p>
<p>Rin sat up fast. "You're offering?"</p>
<p>"I am."</p>
<p>She stared at Sesshomaru, and hesitating a moment, inched closer to him. A long shudder went through her as his fur met her half-way, curling around her shoulder.</p>
<p>"You found that so hard."</p>
<p>His voice was deep and very low.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So many lovely reviews and kudos. The most I've ever received in such a short period of time. Thank you all.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0076"><h2>76. Velveteen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Because I know you don't like to brush against anyone."</p>
<p>"That's very good," Sesshomaru remarked. "But if I were to allow you one thing this is it. I don't mind it."</p>
<p>"Just until I get a new bedroll…"</p>
<p>Rin sighed and shut her eyes. Surrounded by velveteen softness, it was even underneath. Then she heard rustling. She heard him shrugging out of his own fur so she could have it all.</p>
<p>"Do what you want," he told her.</p>
<p>Contrary to what Jaken had said, Rin didn't know she could make a habit of anything she wished. She need only ask—or smile—in order to sit Sesshomaru still. Or in this case, lend out his fur.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0077"><h2>77. Shared Scent</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sleep was merely an option for Sesshomaru.</p>
<p>It was quiet as he sat there crossed legged. Just the deep breathing of Rin sleeping closely beside him.</p>
<p>He exhaled, not really a sigh. They shared each other's scent and their thighs didn't quite touch. He felt warm. Warmth that had nothing to do with the nearness of their bodies. It was comforting having her after being trapped in despair for so long. Now he was free, and he couldn't think of any other he'd rather keep.</p>
<p>He looked down on Rin, and was vaguely startled when his hand, almost as if it had a mind of its own, reached for her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0078"><h2>78. Soft as Cream</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>With his claws, he swept the hair from Rin's cheek to appreciate her better.</p>
<p>She was lovely. Her face was round and her jawline delicate. If there was any flaw in her it was the odd blemish long faded on the surface. Another sweep with his knuckles to touch the skin soft as cream. Very unusual for him to do that. Yet he thrilled at the feel of it and sighed, again thinking her so lovely.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru was thinking many things when one thought gave him such an awful sense of himself that he withdrew his hand and immediately stopped thinking it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0079"><h2>79. Cool Waters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sun spilled down in bright rays through the green leaves.</p>
<p>Rin awoke and stretched herself loose. It was the finest sleep she had gotten in years.</p>
<p>She was alone but not for long. She heard footsteps moving through the brush. Then she saw her Lord, his hair damp and clumped together.</p>
<p>"Lord Sesshomaru!" she said. "Good morning. Did you have a nice bath?" As she was, Rin was all smiles and tousled hair.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru stared as if he didn't know her, distracted.</p>
<p>He had bathed but nothing about it was <em>nice</em>.</p>
<p>It had been a tense night for him. A night spent submerged in cool waters.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Okaaay. Now we're getting somewhere.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0080"><h2>80. Struggler</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ever intuitive, Rin sensed that something was off this morning. Sesshomaru didn't need to speak for them to communicate, but the silence wasn't nearly as comfortable as it was before.</p>
<p>Something bothered her Lord terribly. He seemed caught in his thoughts as he sat beside her.</p>
<p>"Um…" Rin decided not to. She knew Sesshomaru to be a silent struggler, one of great depth and mystery. Fortunately—or unfortunately—for him, she was also a bit of a pryer. When the tension passed she would ask him what upset him so. Maybe not today or even for a few days, but eventually.</p>
<p>For then she'd leave it be.</p>
<p>Jaken had found them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0081"><h2>81. Lumps</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaken flew in on the back of A-un, and scolding Rin already. His beady little eyes could bulge out of his head he was so outraged on Sesshomaru's behalf. "You ought to be ashamed for taking advantage of our Lord's kindness! Don't you know how rare a thing it is?" Rin ignored him, choosing instead to stand and pat and kiss each of A-un's heads. "Bogarting his fur like this. Your mortal sensitivities causes him much trouble. Much—"</p><p>"<em>Jaken.</em>" A cunning voice put the fear of the Gods in the little imp. "What troubles this one is determined only by this one, not by someone whose business it is absolutely not. Am I in any way unclear?"</p><p>"N-no, milord. Crystal clear." Jaken struggled to answer in his beseeching reply. It was in the eyes. Golden eyes that burned with the promise of bodily harm.</p><p>Rin led A-un away as Sesshomaru's hand came down. A thuddering report of a bald head lumped. Three this time.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is it for a little while. Perhaps a week or two. I'm going on vacation and will be taking a break from writing. Stay safe in these crazy times, everyone. And thanks for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0082"><h2>82. Honorable Demon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By noon the August heat was so thick it clung to the back of throats.</p>
<p>Ake plodded lazily down the winding trail, rocking Rin left and right, with Jaken and A-un bringing up the rear.</p>
<p>For one not keen on following, Sesshomaru did it anyway. Actually, he thought it preferable in order to reacquaint himself with every instinct of delicacy and respect for Rin.</p>
<p>She and Jaken talked—or rather bickered—under the trees, and as they bickered Sesshomaru watched the long, dark hair hanging loose down her slender back.</p>
<p>He repressed the sigh that rose to his lips, regretting each stolen caress in the night before. Drenched in his shame, he vowed as a demon to keep his curiosities and claws to himself; to never make the mistake of crossing his passions, and to always shun the impulse that prompted him to stroke her face in the first place.</p>
<p>There is honor in a demon's promise, and few were as honorable as he.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yeah good luck with that, Sesshomaru. This story is rated M for a reason.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0083"><h2>83. Shellfish</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Rin decided it was time Sesshomaru got out of his head, she slowed Ake, allowing the horse's gait to fall into his.</p>
<p>"Say, my lord," she started to ask, "is all of this yours?"</p>
<p>"All of what."</p>
<p>Rin made a sweeping gesture with her arm. "The forest and everything."</p>
<p>"From that mountain," he answered, pointing, "to the far-reaching coast northwest of here."</p>
<p>Good to know. Rin intended to explore her Lord's territory at will. For then she'd keep him talking. "Do you like shellfish?"</p>
<p>"<em>Hn…</em>"</p>
<p>"Because I love it."</p>
<p>"Out with it, Rin." Now he looked at her, and like sunshine was her smile. Quite frankly it charmed him into lighter thoughts. "Tell me what you want."</p>
<p>"I already did," she said.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0084"><h2>84. Hold That Thought</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"So it seems," Sesshomaru said after a while. "I suppose—"</p>
<p>His words caught suddenly, and he stopped.</p>
<p>The entire party came to a halt as Sesshomaru stood on the shaded path, pupils trembling as though processing something. His gaze cut left, and from the shoulder down white fur bristled in recurrent waves.</p>
<p>As one body, Rin and Jaken turned to look but saw nothing.</p>
<p>"Is something wrong?"</p>
<p>"Wait here," he told her. Then, without another word, he was gone.</p>
<p>"An intruder," Jaken said.</p>
<p>"Will they die?"</p>
<p>"It is guaranteed."</p>
<p>Moments later, an anguished cry came from the direction Sesshomaru went.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0085"><h2>85. Like A Dog</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>And when Sesshomaru returned it was as though he had never left.</p>
<p>The small group plodded on.</p>
<p>"As you were, Rin."</p>
<p>"Shellfish," she said. "Do you eat it?"</p>
<p>"You wish to see the ocean?" he asked, dodging the question a second time—at which Rin laughed heartily.</p>
<p>"If you don't mind getting sand in your fur."</p>
<p>Jaken groaned in front of them, but otherwise kept his opinions to himself.</p>
<p>"Sand is easily removed."</p>
<p>"Removed how? By… shaking?" Quiet for a moment. "Are you saying you <em>shake?</em> Like a dog?"</p>
<p>Sesshomaru turned away from her, forcing his tongue at the back of his teeth. Then he turned right back. "More like a shiver," he said. "A series of spasms, if you will."</p>
<p>Rin pursed her lips. "That's all very well, my Lord. But isn't shiver just another word for shake—"</p>
<p>"Rin…"</p>
<p>She laughed again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0086"><h2>86. Playful</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Is it meat? Fish? Some kind of fruit perhaps?" Why Rin was so determined to know the specifics of his diet would forever mystify Sesshomaru. "I bet it's meat. You like pork, don't you, Lord Sesshomaru? You hardly sip water, but surely you eat."</p>
<p>"Of course I eat."</p>
<p>"Yes, but <em>what?"</em></p>
<p>"... edible things."</p>
<p>Rin let out a defeated sigh.</p>
<p>Seeing the end of the forest, Rin tore off to ride through the sun-scorched grass.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru watched her leave, experiencing a strangeness that made him feel no more than ridiculous. She had such a silliness about her, such a contrast to his grave personality. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Nor the combination of curious regret as she left him behind for other amusements.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0087"><h2>87. Lord Prick</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next day, when the sweltering sun was where every villager wanted it to be—hidden behind dark clouds—Inuyasha detected something in the air. He was sitting in a large oak tree just outside the village, with Miroku lounging on the grass below.</p>
<p>"What do you smell?"</p>
<p>"It's the brat," Inuyasha said. "'Bout time she came back—" Suddenly he caught another scent. Standing up, he looked across the paddies and immediately locked eyes with his brother.</p>
<p>"What," Miroku wondered up at him. "What is it?"</p>
<p>Inuyasha landed heavily on the ground. "No one important—just Lord prick himself."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0088"><h2>88. Break Off</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin approached.</p>
<p>Immediately Inuyasha noticed a few things.</p>
<p>The kimono she wore proved she was already more thoroughly his brother's companion. Regarding the silk with another eye, he sensed a quiet energy coming from it. In some ways it was not unlike his firerat robe.</p>
<p>"Good to see you, Rin," Miroku said.</p>
<p>Inuyasha decided to address the bandaged arm hidden under her sleeve. "What happened under there?"</p>
<p>"It's a long story." Rin touched her arm thoughtfully. "First, Ake cut his leg on a river rock, then a wolf bit me. Come on and I'll tell you and everyone about it."</p>
<p>"I'll catch up," Inuyasha said, looking to where Sesshomaru was. "I know you're only here to break us off anyway."</p>
<p>Rin shifted uncomfortably on her horse. When put that way… "I understand. But you know this isn't <em>goodbye, goodbye</em>, right? That I'll be back to visit?"</p>
<p>"<em>Pfft</em>. Of course," he said, dropping his hand to his side. Then, walking away, "Go on. The old one's been worried."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0089"><h2>89. Buddy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Inuyasha raised his chin as he approached Sesshomaru, who didn't give him so much as a side-long glance. It would storm soon. He could smell the rain coming. After a tense moment that seemed to stretch on and on, finally he said, "I thought you'd be back for her."</p><p>"How very perceptive of you." Sesshomaru sounded bored already.</p><p>"You didn't miss much," he continued, ignoring the slight. "Kaede tried raising her like any other girl, but the brat had her own ideas."</p><p>"Mm."</p><p>"So I told the old bitty not to be sore over it. Can't treat Rin like any other girl 'cause she ain't like any other girl. Tie her to a post if you want her to stay put." Sesshomaru only blinked slowly. Inuyasha went on, wanting to confirm something. " 'She don't want a simple life,' I told her once. 'What're you entertaining would-be suitors for? The girl is wild inside. The last thing she wants to be is some farmer's little wife.' "</p><p>That garnered his brother's rapt attention. "Suitors?"</p><p>"Oh, yeah. And believe me, <em>buddy</em>, there were many."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0090"><h2>90. As She Pleases</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes at Inuyasha, standing a little taller.</p><p>"Keh! Put your leg down before you piss everywhere. She wasn't harassed or anything. We did right by her, bet on that. Not that I'd expect any gratitude from you or anything." His brother was so strange to him, what with his heart of flint. Yet it was obvious he cared deeply for Rin, just as it was obvious she had always wanted to accompany him. For what reason he did not know. He didn't care to know. Only that she was old enough to choose her own path. "Bring her back every once in a while," he said. "Kaede could croak any day now."</p><p>"Little brother, you misunderstand. Rin will do as she pleases."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0091"><h2>91. Warm Hand</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The visiting hour had come and gone.</p>
<p>After many hugs and well wishes, Rin was alone with Kaede. They sat in silence on the floorboards, sipping tea as rain pounded on the thatched roof.</p>
<p>Kaede stoked the fire, her arthritic hand trembling.</p>
<p>A sweet sadness began to fill Rin's heart.</p>
<p>For no reason other than her own goodness, certainly not because of some obligation, the old miko had raised her as her own. If Rin had known a mother's love before her, she knew it more clearly now.</p>
<p>She took the weathered hand into hers, to stop its shaking, and to warm it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It's been a while. Here's six chapters while I continue to struggle to lead up into act two of the story.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0092"><h2>92. Go Fetch</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Where is he?" Kaede asked after some time. Though there was a softness in her expression, her tone almost sounded accusatory.</p>
<p>"Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin dried her eyes with her sleeve. "Somewhere out there, I guess."</p>
<p>"Bring him in."</p>
<p>Suddenly Rin sensed mischief. "What will you say to him?"</p>
<p>Kaede chuckled. Then she adjusted the throw cover spread across her legs. "Proud types favor quiet meetings," she said. "I'd like to look at him. I wish to look him in the eye before you leave. Now, fetch him, child. As heavy as his aura hangs in the air he must be waiting nearby."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0093"><h2>93. Sit Boy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru wasn't long.</p>
<p>He came in, ducking slightly as he walked through the door. He stood mute and motionless, hesitating whether or not to proceed further or to retrace his steps at once. He had never been inside a human's home before, and while he remained thus, looking down on the old miko and his ward from his lofty height, he also took in the room.</p>
<p>The fire and the simmering pot, simple wooden furnishings; a low table in one corner, futons in another.</p>
<p>Finally, after much staring, Kaede said, "I'll have ye sitting. Demons shouldn't lurk in doorways. It's rude."</p>
<p>Rin stifled a laugh. And ever so subtly, Sesshomaru tilted his head at Kaede, much like a dog hearing a new sound.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0094"><h2>94. Out Of Place</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Sit with us, my Lord."</p>
<p>Rin was still trying not to laugh as she stood. She took Sesshomaru by his sleeve and tugged on it. He let her pull him down onto the floor, where then he folded his legs and sat crisply, with his claws resting neatly on his lap. He appeared out of place, making everything in the home seem inadequate. Donned in silk and fur, it was as though a noble mingled with commoners, that was the proportion.</p>
<p>But the fact that their eyes couldn't help but meet sometimes, with now and then a look of tenderness and want did not escape Kaede. "Apologies," she said. "I haven't any tea to offer ye."</p>
<p>"That won't be necessary—"</p>
<p>"Rin child," Kaede said, cutting Sesshomaru off, "be a dear and fill the jugs with water."</p>
<p>Without protest Rin would do it. Even as she realized the containers were nearly full.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0095"><h2>95. On Fire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"So," Kaede started, and taking a large spoon to tomorrow's stew, "Rin has decided to satisfy her thirst for adventure. Would ye be prepared?"</p>
<p>"Naturally," Sesshomaru replied. "She will be kept from harm, and from boredom."</p>
<p>"That I do not doubt. But I do believe your head is on fire… and she the one who has set it aflame." Sesshomaru had been staring at the shadows flickering against the wall when he snapped to her. "Though ye hardly knows it himself, nor what to do with the affections he so carefully conceals…"</p>
<p>A dead pause to ensure he had heard her correctly. When he confirmed that indeed he had, he still wasn't sure. "You sent Rin away to scandalize me? Is that it?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0096"><h2>96. Secret</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Try not to insult my intelligence, if ye can. It is true, I am old. But I am not blind." Kaede paused so he could understand, and all the while staring boldly into eyes that tended to gleam. "As one senses fondness, so I sense yours. But ye is uncomfortable with the thought, <em>unprepared, </em>while she is oblivious. Might I wonder why?"</p>
<p>"You may," Sesshomaru said. "Though I know not what it is you're wondering."</p>
<p>His face was a pale mask. Not so much as a single crease, so not entirely a lie. But he would have given years of his life to her, if such a thing were possible for him to give, for the old woman to drop the subject into the bottom of the deepest, most darkest waters.</p>
<p>Whatever he felt for Rin, he'd rather his heart disclosed itself in secret, even if it meant keeping himself in the dark.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0097"><h2>97. Slander</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kaede saw what she needed to see. She was never wrong about this sort of thing. A cool demeanor is not always, as is suspected, the absence of anxiety. Still, she couldn't help but wonder how he saw Rin exactly, if whether or not he was stuck on his own idea of her.</p><p>There was certainly self-awareness here. So much to be anxious about. Sesshomaru must know what having a young woman for his companion implied. What having her speak his name more familiarly—if she so wished—just might suggest.</p><p><em>Best to leave it be</em>, Kaede mused.</p><p>Any more would be teasing—slander to him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Last four chapters before we head into act 2.</p><p>Tension coming...</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0098"><h2>98. Lordly Bow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin returned.</p>
<p>With one smooth motion, Sesshomaru unfolded his long body until standing. "Miko," he said. Brows rose as he bent his head in lordly respect. A barely there gesture that was hardly a bow, but altogether appropriate for one as prideful as himself. Kaede had the audacity to vet him, and more than ever he believed Inuyasha spoke the truth when he said they had done right by her.</p>
<p>"I don't have much," Kaede began, bowing as well, "but ye are welcome to it for the night."</p>
<p>"I prefer the society of the forest."</p>
<p>"Of course. Go with honor."</p>
<p>"I'll come for you in the morning," he said to Rin.</p>
<p>Then he was gone.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0099"><h2>99. Deduction</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"The fire is dying. Throw a log on it—and don't look at me so suspiciously."</p>
<p>Rin fidgeted in disbelief. "You told me to get water we didn't need."</p>
<p>"To scrutinize him." Kaede sipped her tea. "To get the demon talking."</p>
<p>"Lord Sesshomaru doesn't <em>talk</em>."</p>
<p>"Hardly a sentence." Kaede watched the fire roar back to life as Rin fed and stoked it. "Would ye care to know my deduction?"</p>
<p>"I'd love to hear it." Rin knelt before her, giving Kaede her undivided attention.</p>
<p>"Now, when you call him Lord, I want ye to consider your standing with him. Truly think on it. Know that he will give ye anything, will do anything because he cannot help himself."</p>
<p>Rin blinked, speechless.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0100"><h2>100. Easy Weather</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Can't help himself?" Rin repeated. "But why—"</p><p>"Focus, child." Kaede smiled warmly at her. "Did ye forget? He is a dog demon after all. Loyalty in flesh and blood. Believe me when I say he will struggle to deny ye of anything."</p><p>Rin thought for a moment. She saw herself wandering with him, side by side among the woods and valleys. "But I don't need…" In her mind now was the image of his sleeping form. How ethereal he had looked with each rise and fall of his chest. Come to think of it, if she were to actually bring another bedroll she wouldn't have an excuse to lay beside him, warm in his fur. "I don't <em>want</em> anything from him."</p><p>Not that Kaede believed this lie. "We all want for little in easy weather. Ye might sing a different tune when the first hint of autumn chills the air."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0101"><h2>101. Cunning Decision</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A girl of few worldly possessions, Rin packed only the essentials: A pot for cooking, a yukata to wear when bathing, and a few jars of herbs for medicinal salves.</p>
<p>Rin also made the cunning decision not to bring another bedroll.</p>
<p>She intended to put Kaede's advice to good work. If the old miko was somehow mistaken, the worst her Lord could do is sternly check her behavior. But if she was right, then Rin would spare no opportunity to warm Sesshomaru's heart—and body—with her human nature.</p>
<p>She was almost ecstatically excited. In truth, she only knew <em>of</em> masculinity and romance, perceiving it in her mind as a painting rather than the model of it.</p>
<p>But who better to satisfy her curiosity? Who better with to learn from if not Sesshomaru? She could think of no one else to betray the coyness assumed of her than the demon she trusted most.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Um, excuse me, Miss Rin. You want to learn what now? His brain would surely melt.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0102"><h2>102. Fly Long</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The weather was comfortable after last night's rain.</p>
<p>Content to walk, and with Sesshomaru beside her, Rin led Ake through a dense glade where the grass was thick beneath her feet.</p>
<p>"Why do you walk everywhere?" A random question. But Rin wanted to make small talk as they moved under the trees.</p>
<p>"I like the sound of my boots touching the ground."</p>
<p>"Is that all?" <em>That can't be it</em>, she thought.</p>
<p>"Your tone is unimpressed with me."</p>
<p>"If I could fly I would never walk."</p>
<p>"You think that because you are human. Besides," he continued in a voice that was gentle and vague, "to fly always through sheer will alone is exhausting. I can fly long. I do it when I have to. But it's easier to walk."</p>
<p>Rin hadn't considered the limitations of his power, only the nuance of it. How he always seemed to call on a reserve of strength when in a bind. It was all too fascinating, and she appreciated his willingness to reveal some of his mysteries to her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0103"><h2>103. So He Roams</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When it grew dark, they settled to make camp.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for Rin, Sesshomaru decided to roam that night, so she had to make due propping herself against A-un. That was fine. Fine the next evening too. But on the third night she couldn't help but groan at Jaken.</p>
<p>"What do you think he's doing?" she asked the little demon, who had just settled down next to A-un's tail.</p>
<p>"Now how would I know that?" He was short with her because all he wanted to do was sleep. "Why don't you ask him in the morning? He talks to you more than he ever talked to me."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0104"><h2>104. Prominent Sense</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a long while before she spoke again. "Hey, Master Jaken."</p>
<p>"My staff for a good night's rest," he griped.</p>
<p>"How good is his hearing?"</p>
<p>"Lord Sesshomaru's? Keen, I would say." Jaken turned over, yawning. "Though not as keen as his nose… Now leave me be."</p>
<p>Of course not. Rin knew Sesshomaru could smell a threat long before hearing it.</p>
<p>Needless to say, she was beginning to suspect that he was busying himself on purpose. Avoiding her. Not since the night spent alone together in the forest had he stuck around in the dark. She remembered how he came upon her that morning; wet and shining as though just washed, his brows knitted and his eyes staring hard at nothing in particular. She'd never seen him look so upset.</p>
<p>Rin shut her eyes.</p>
<p><em>That's right,</em> she thought. <em>I was going to ask him...</em></p>
<p>They would arrive at the shore tomorrow. And once there, come the night, she wouldn't let him wander off so easily.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0105"><h2>105. On All Fours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The beach smelled of clean salt air, with hardly a soul save for several seagulls cawing overhead.</p>
<p>While Sesshomaru sat on the sand with Jaken, Rin eyed the shore. She'd leave the sitting still to them that afternoon.</p>
<p>She tethered Ake and pulled a sack from his saddlebags. Then, sliding out of her thong sandals, she rolled up her sleeves. Now Rin was ready to hunt for crabs and other seafood delicacies.</p>
<p>"Would you look at this," Jaken said to Sesshomaru, who was already watching Rin intently. "Down on all fours like some... Are you a girl or are you a bear?" he called out at her.</p>
<p>"Jaken," Sesshomaru said. "Leave her be."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I couldn't help myself. Here's 8 chapters in one go.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0106"><h2>106. Sweet Flesh</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Though Rin's sack was nearly full she was not satisfied. Clams and oysters are both very well, but what she really wanted was crab. However, the kind worth eating was plentiful in the fall and winter months. </p><p>Despite this, she wouldn't give up. Hairy crabs were a favorite, and it's been ages since she last tasted the critter's sweet flesh.</p><p>Her determination led her to a cove, where she waited for low-tide. With her stomach growling fierce, carefully, she climbed down the descent of slippery rocks, unaware that somewhere across the sand watched a demon who just experienced a spasm of alarm.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0107"><h2>107. Instincts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru fought the instinct to go and snatch her from the rocks. His innate desire to protect her was as strong as it had ever been, but the grip behind that need had loosened.</p>
<p>Rin is not helpless. He told himself twice. She wasn't some withering flower in constant need of supervision. Until recently he had never thought it possible for four wolves to die at the same time, and all because of one human girl.</p>
<p>His tongue pressed hard at the roof of his mouth. She had a sure grip all the way down, but still he hated seeing this. He breathed a sigh of relief when she made her way back up.</p>
<p>It seemed whatever it was she was after she got.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0108"><h2>108. Thoughtful Gift</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The three crabs Rin caught came with a price.</p><p>A particularly sharp rock tore a long gash in her kimono. She frowned deeply when she saw it, thinking how could she ruin something so beautiful. Then she gasped. Before her very eyes, slowly but surely the threads started to stitch themselves back together, the dirt grimed into the fabric lifting away.</p><p>Rin heard her Lord's disembodied voice say inside her head: <em>You will discover its mysteries as you wear it.</em></p><p>And there the silk was, revealing just that.</p><p>Truly, a thoughtful gift. A kimono made with her lifestyle in mind.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0109"><h2>109. Blood Red Lips</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin uttered a quick apology to the crabs before dropping them in a pot of boiling seawater. Since Jaken sat the closest, his eyes shining in anticipation, she served him first.</p>
<p>"A perfectly cooked crab," he remarked. Rin smiled. High praise coming from him.</p>
<p>She offered one to Sesshomaru. "Have one."</p>
<p>"No thanks."</p>
<p>Rin told herself she shouldn't be disappointed, but it couldn't be helped. "So you won't eat anything?" she asked, straining to remove the crab's tough shell. A spine pricked her in her struggle, and Sesshomaru watched as she brought the bleeding finger to her lips and sucked on it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0110"><h2>110. Displeased</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I never said I wouldn't," Sesshomaru told her. Then he took a raw oyster from her sack, and in the same motion cracked it opened with his thumb-claw. He swallowed it whole.</p><p>For a moment, Rin just stared. "What else do you like?"</p><p>"I assure you I am fully capable of feeding myself." Yet the sack was beside him now, and he helped himself to the rest of the oysters.</p><p>"That's not what I asked."</p><p>"So persistent," he said. "I'd admire you for it were it not directed at me." He stopped when he heard a frustrated little sound. "<em>Hn... </em>Rin is displeased."</p><p>"Because you're being difficult."</p><p>He tossed a shell away, sighing. "If I tell you this, will you relent?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Altered 7/15</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0111"><h2>111. Sweet Flavors</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin nodded vigorously. "Of course."</p>
<p>Sesshomaru ran his tongue over his lips—and it did not go unnoticed. "Meat," he said then. "Venison, heart, liver. Raw but not all the time. Don't much care for vegetables, or the crops you humans produce. Most of it anyway. I am however partial to sweet flavors."</p>
<p>"Like fruit?"</p>
<p>"And honeycomb."</p>
<p>Rin hoped he'd tell it all. She hung onto his every word, devouring everything he said to her—like the oysters he was presently polishing off, one after the other. "Tell me more."</p>
<p>"In the heart of my territory lives a human Lord who grows sugar cane. I like to chew on the stalks."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0112"><h2>112. Quiet Attentions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>And so there they were, sitting in the sand under a blood-red sky; a girl, a demon dog, and an imp. Each more different than the one beside, down even to their respective beasts of burden. A proper show of freakery small minds might say. Not that Sesshomaru cared what anyone thought of him or his small group. He was too content in this moment, too caught up in the dark splendor of long, silky hair.</p>
<p>Rin didn't notice these quiet attentions. Sesshomaru didn't think her to notice, confident that in her knowledge of life and love she was oblivious to how a male looked when doting in plain sight. It was all of her, really. The tune she hummed and the sun-kissed throat, the wincing expression when the brush snagged on a tangle—all these parts and features of her that truly endeared her to him.</p>
<p>He forced himself to look away. Then he stood.</p>
<p>"Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin's voice sounded so sweet.</p>
<p>"I'll return at dawn," he said.</p>
<p>Rin set down her brush, remembering the number 39 in her head. "But I'd like for you to stay."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I've been itching to write the next scene for weeks. ;)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0113"><h2>113. Brought To Heel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The shore was a cool place after dark, even with a fire blazing near; but Rin was warm in soft, white fur.</p>
<p>While Sesshomaru sat she lay on her back, looking up at the stars, and feeling satisfied with herself.</p>
<p>Her Lord had been brought to heel with one request. And her heart could burst she was so thrilled.</p>
<p>Twilight sounds filled the air.</p>
<p>Rin heard him move, the slip of his silk against the sand. She bit her bottom lip. His hair trailed along the ground in the space between them. She wanted to wander through it, gather it in her hands and toss it aside. But his hair also represented a boundary she was still too nervous to cross. His side of the fur seemed forbidden territory.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This was my favorite part to edit so far :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0114"><h2>114. White Lie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I want to ask you something," Rin said. "Days ago, when we were alone… That morning you looked so upset. Why?"</p><p>"No reason."</p><p>Rin turned on her side to face him. "You wouldn't lie to me, would you?" she asked, eyeing him closely for the slightest hesitation.</p><p>"Never in my life," he answered calmly, though emotions were beginning to stir within.</p><p>"Then why do you lie right now?" Quiet between them. In the moonlight she saw clearly the planes of his face, the tension coiling in his jaw. "Is it personal?"</p><p>"Very."</p><p>"Won't you tell me?" His silence meant that he would not. "So you won't share. Alright then. How about I tell you what's been bothering me?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0115"><h2>115. Plum</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I hate watching you leave when it gets dark."</p>
<p>Sesshomaru's pulse quickened. "But there is nothing to fear," he said.</p>
<p>"I never said I was afraid."</p>
<p>"Then what are you trying to say?"</p>
<p>Rin inhaled deeply. "That I want you to sleep with me at night."</p>
<p>The soft voice; the large brown eyes...</p>
<p>Despite this, the words fell like a boulder between them.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru's anxiety sharpened. Part of this anxiousness was a vague and constant self-loathing. He hated to analyze why, when already honor was beginning to feel less like virtue and more like the enemy. In a dark corner of his mind, Rin was like a plum waiting to be picked. Waiting to be eaten. A plum that would leave his tongue red—</p>
<p>At this point, he tightened his face and took a grip upon himself. He had to make one thing explicitly clear with her. "This one also does as he pleases," he said.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0116"><h2>116. Rule</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Suddenly, Rin sat up on her knees.</p>
<p>"I left my bedroll on purpose," she started, leaning towards him. Sesshomaru felt himself tense. "Because nothing compares to sleeping on a cloud of fur. And," she added, inching even closer, "I should think if there is no one to kill, then there's no one to kill. So I want you near me when you sleep. If you're awake then I want you beside me anyway. That must be a rule between us—"</p>
<p>"No, don't say this to me." He turned from her, alarmed at her earnest voice, and how little patience she had with her own shyness.</p>
<p>Rin was stunned. She had the fleeting impression he was nervous. But she immediately dismissed it and asked with sudden and passionate gravity, "Why can't I say it? Is sleep such a bad thing?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0117"><h2>117. Liberties</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her hand rested on his shoulder. He blinked at it for a long while, his eyes evincing nothing but calm though he was caught between indecision and surrender. Then he looked at her quite seriously, sighing heavily. "I cannot promise every night. But if this will please you—"</p>
<p>Rin threw her arms around his neck and squeezed. His heart rose and shivered. The press of their bodies was dulled by his chest plate and angled by his armor, but still he felt too much of her.</p>
<p>"Rin," he said slowly, the husk of his own voice strange in his ears, "the liberties you take with me…"</p>
<p>"Do what you want," she said. "Is that not what you always tell me?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0118"><h2>118. Small Noise</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His hand scraped slowly down to the small of her back; a ghost of a caress still within the shadows of decency. He flattened his palm so as to not prick her, painfully aware of his claws.</p>
<p>To Rin this was encouragement, and she poured herself into his embrace until her body was flushed against his.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru was in genuine shock. He uttered some small noise, not quite a growl or a groan. Her warm breath snaked its way into the hidden crevices behind his neck and hair, sending a surge of blood to his groin.</p>
<p>And then his hands were at the arch of her hips.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0119"><h2>119. Linger Too Long</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru felt her flinch, let his claws sink deep, before separating her body from his. "That's enough," he said. "Sleep now."</p><p>After all, a hug can linger too long.</p><p>There was something unreadable in his expression as he placed her gently on the ground. He was staring at the ocean with a far-off look in his eyes, thinking the water might be cold enough. But Rin was there beside him, and regarding him curiously.</p><p>So he pulled Tensegia from his hip, then Bakusaiga. Tossed them aside in a manner Rin thought was unlike himself. "Lord Sesshomaru?" she asked. But to this he just grunted, then arranged his body in a way she had not seen before.</p><p>He rolled onto his stomach, with his chin resting atop his forearm. Not another word was said. He lay there silent, staring into the dark, his claws sifting through the sand.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0120"><h2>120. Unreasonable</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sleep took all but one.</p>
<p>Rin did not stay on her side of the fur, and Sesshomaru was covered in her scent. It even clung to the length of his hair, which her hand had fondled before tightening into a grip.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru lay wide awake surrounded by her. Slowly, he turned his head to see her face. Rin appeared content to have him in her embrace, clinging to him like a lover. Her slender arm was draped across his chest, and he exhaled a wearied sigh under the weight of it.</p>
<p>Then he tensed and muttered something profane.</p>
<p>To his dismay, he could feel himself becoming unreasonable, because while she clung to him her leg began to creep up his thigh.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>... and oh my God, there was only one Mokomoko.</p>
<p>I LOVE the "there was only one bed" trope.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0121"><h2>121. Crowded Moment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"<em>Rin</em>," Sesshomaru whispered, calm at first, then with urgency.</p>
<p>He struggled to pretend this was not happening. He could feel desire beginning to turn into something closer to an ache; and when that warm leg of hers slid up and over his lap, inching closer to what was now very obviously straining against the seam, it had the harrowing effect of tightening his stomach.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru wanted—</p>
<p>Actually, he was afraid to complete the thought. But he couldn't allow her wandering leg another inch, to let it creep as it was inclined to do.</p>
<p>So, in one crowded moment, he loosened the grip in his hair and quickly untangled their limbs.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0122"><h2>122. Think Fast</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin stirred.</p><p>She spoke in a sleepy little voice Sesshomaru scarcely heard over the throbbing in his ears. A question it sounded like. He thought as fast as he could. "The temperature is dropping," he said, smothering her in fur. "You'll catch an illness." His hands trembled. Every one of his nerves was heightened to ten as he looked at her for a long time, waiting for an answer.</p><p>But he wouldn't get one.</p><p>Rin was already asleep again.</p><p>Sesshomaru made it his personal business to ensure a forearm's distance between them. But still he wouldn't sleep. His claws slid into his scalp. He was experiencing the longest night of his life.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0123"><h2>123. Claw Pricks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning, Rin awoke and immediately went to relieve herself.</p><p>The sea air was chilly, and as she squatted behind a large rock, shivering over the ground with her kimono hiked up, she felt a dull stinging from where Sesshomaru's hands had wrapped around her waist the night before.</p><p>Curious, she hoisted her clothing a little higher, revealing a series of claw pricks, the other hip dotted red as well.</p><p>Strange.</p><p>His claws had never slipped before. Rin was certain of it. No matter how rough the action he had always managed to handle her with care.</p><p><em>Probably an accident</em>, she figured when she stood.</p><p>Besides, there was no blood. He hadn't even broken the skin.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0124"><h2>124. Finesse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They traveled together through forests and valleys, across rivers and over rolling hills. They ate together. Slept together without incident, the latter owing to Sesshomaru's finesse, if not the necessity of some rather delicate maneuvering.</p>
<p>At times, Rin wandered off to explore. Other times Sesshomaru floated away to patrol his borders.</p>
<p>This went on for weeks until one morning Rin woke up exhausted. She leaned against the tree they had settled down under the night before, with her arms wrapped around her stomach.</p>
<p>"You look tired," Sesshomaru remarked.</p>
<p>Wincing, she glanced up his shoulder. "I'm fine. It's just… My, uh… My time of the month."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for the reviews, guys. I just love hearing your thoughts.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0125"><h2>125. Not With The Seasons</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Your what." Sesshomaru knew these words, just not how they were spoken. He saw a bright color flush her face, her eyes quickening to everything but his.</p>
<p>"You know…" He did not, and Rin blushed more violently than before. "When we bleed…"</p>
<p>"<em>... ah." </em></p>
<p>It took him a moment.</p>
<p>And just as they traveled, ate, and slept together, so did they share a kind of mutual embarrassment, with neither willing to look upon the other.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru learned something new about human women that morning. For them it did not come with the seasons, but with each new moon—or so he gathered. "Do you… <em>require</em> anything?" he asked while staring holes into his boots.</p>
<p>"Can we not talk anymore?"</p>
<p>He had hoped she'd say something quite like that, all too eager to drop the subject and shut up.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0126"><h2>126. Dog Days</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin was fit for anything inside of a few days.</p><p>The last hot day of summer was spent by a stream. Rin and Jaken fished while A-un and Ake grazed along the bank.</p><p>Sesshomaru sat in the shade with his eyes narrowed to slits, listening to how prettily Rin talked and laughed at Jaken. The imp was putting up a stiff front, pretending to be unaffected by her encouraging demeanor. Yet when he came out of the water holding a large trout he had no reservations about joining her in celebration.</p><p>Sesshomaru shut his eyes. But just as he lapsed into a light sleep he opened them.</p><p>Someone was coming in fast.</p><p>A demon.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0127"><h2>127. Urgent News</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It came down from the sky.</p><p>When the dust cleared, there before him stood a demon-child. Not just any demon-child but one of his kind. <em>Inuyoukai. </em></p><p>Rin dropped everything, her eyes growing wide as all outside. "Oh my goodness. Is that…" She squealed and clapped her hands together. To think her Lord might have looked like that once upon a time. "He's so cute!"</p><p>The boy, looking to be about 9 or 10 in human years, scowled at her, before adjusting his pelt—which he wore around his shoulders and neck like a shawl. Like Sesshomaru, he had a crescent in the middle of his forehead, but unlike Sesshomaru he bore no markings along his cheekbones. "I bring urgent news from the Lady Mother," he said, bowing. "<em>Very urgent, </em>my Lord."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0128"><h2>128. Little Cousin</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru was presented with a scroll sealed with his mother's signet. He unfurled the parchment, glanced down it carelessly, then turned his gaze to Jaken who was hobbling up to his side.</p><p>"What does it say, milord?"</p><p>Without an answer, Sesshomaru gave the paper to Jaken.</p><p>Meanwhile, the boy observed the small group. "You keep <em>strange</em> company, Lord Sesshomaru."</p><p>"Hey!" Rin resented that.</p><p>"You have a dragon," continued the boy, blasé as ever, "so why a human? What can a human do? I'd certainly never keep one for a pet—"</p><p>"Whose son are you?" Sesshomaru demanded to know.</p><p>The boy snapped into attention. "I am General Shiroikai's youngest."</p><p>"Then you are kin to me and I will have your respect—and silence."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0129"><h2>129. Her Anger</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"So what was that about?" Rin asked after the demon-child flew away.</p><p>"Nothing you need concern yourself with," Sesshomaru answered, dismissing her entirely. "Politics."</p><p>Now, if there was one thing Rin didn't like it was being patronized. She huffed and lifted her chin defiantly. "Don't do that," she said. "It's insulting and, honestly, coming from you, hurtful."</p><p>Sesshomaru thought he knew all the tones of her voice; each of its ranges, every high and low. The scathing in this one he had never heard. Abruptly he realized he said the wrong thing.</p><p>"My sincerest apologies for having offended you," he said, aware of how stiff and formal his words sounded.</p><p>Rin crossed her arms over her chest, but her expression did soften. "I'm listening."</p><p>"It's a dispute over territory I... <em>appropriated </em>from a previous ruler. His brother seeks revenge."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0130"><h2>130. Lord of Lord's</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"What will you do?" Rin asked quietly. "Will you have to fight?"</p>
<p>"Naturally," Sesshomaru answered. "I will surrender nothing. This is not the first time that I have slain my own, nor will it be the last." His tone was so dry it was as though he talked about the weather.</p>
<p>Staring into his steely gaze, Rin felt dread striving to rise up in her. But it strove against her love and admiration for him. Perhaps, she thought, he could be moved from that conviction. "Does it have to be that way? Can't you just give—"</p>
<p>"No, he cannot!" Jaken could hold his tongue no longer. He squawked at her, "You dare judge our Master with your humanity… You forget yourself, girl. You walk with demons," as he pointed an ugly finger at her. "A magnificently terrible one at that. Now, you tell me how he's to become Lord of Lord's if he's anything but!"</p>
<p>Rin was stunned speechless.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Damn, Jaken. Tell Rin how you really feel.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0131"><h2>131. Admission</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin looked between them. The fact that Jaken had not been reprimanded proved he spoke the truth. But still she struggled to understand. To fight in defense of oneself or another was justified. This seemed little more than senseless violence. <em>Peacockery.</em> "Why?" she implored. "All for land?"</p><p>"No, Rin," Sesshomaru told her. "Supreme dominance."</p><p>So there it was. Admission.</p><p>Astonished, Rin drew back a step. "You mean that? You mean what you say to me?"</p><p>"Why ask a question if you fear the answer?"</p><p>"But, my Lord, your <em>own kind</em>…"</p><p>Sesshomaru turned from her. "It cannot be helped."</p><p>"I don't believe that," Rin said, faltering a little at his cold shoulder. Then her voice rose, demanding his full attention. "Tell me something. Did you <em>really </em>have to kill that other Lord?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0132"><h2>132. True Nature</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru appeared to reflect.</p><p>He was in conflict, however, behind his indifferent expression, warring with himself. True, he wasn't the least bit remorseful about what he'd done, or so he told himself. But Rin was trembling now, and staring at him in fierce wonder. He couldn't stand that hurting face. It gave him the loathsome feeling that he betrayed her in some inexplicable way.</p><p>After much hesitation, he decided to put the truth before her plainly. "He didn't need to die."</p><p>"Milord—"</p><p>"Silence, Jaken. Rin wishes to know this one's true nature, and it would upset her further were I to keep her from it."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0133"><h2>133. Running Water</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaken was told to make himself scarce, Rin to follow.</p><p>What had been a clear and easy day had turned gray and tense. Dark clouds swirled above, and the large oak they sat under was already letting rain through on them.</p><p>Rin waited for Sesshomaru to talk. She wanted to say something when more than a few minutes passed, and too much time was spent watching water drip down his jaw and neck.</p><p>Without a word, slowly she reached inside his sleeve. His fingers were warm and passive in her hand, encompassing hers. So she squeezed, both to encourage him and to pull him back into the moment with her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0134"><h2>134. Ugly Grief</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In their time together, Sesshomaru had not held out his hand to take hers. He avoided the touch of her fluttering hair, which the wind seemed to always blow towards him.</p><p>If the grimness of the situation wasn't mounting by the second, he might have enjoyed this small intimacy with her.</p><p>Instead, he would sully her idea of him that evening.</p><p>"Whenever you're ready," she urged. "I want to understand."</p><p>"You were missed," he said simply, and Rin shut her mouth, stunned at his bold confession. "When I left you alone, I became rage without direction. I wanted to fit the world between my teeth, let poison fly and scorch the earth with it." He paused there, knowing what he was about to admit would mean she'd never see him the same way again. "I found myself trapped in an ugly grief, so I kept cutting throats," he said low and hard, "until there were no more throats left to cut."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0135"><h2>135. Because Of You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin pulled her fingers from his grasp, and not without difficulty. It was the worst feeling for him, her hand leaving his. She still sat close beside him, however, and he was grateful for that.</p>
<p>"Rin..."</p>
<p>Rin shook her head and took another moment to gather herself. Something had shattered in her and she hadn't glanced at him since. "Did it help?" she said at last, barely a whisper. "Were you satisfied afterward?"</p>
<p>"No."</p>
<p>"I see," was all she could muster. "So you didn't feel anything. And because of me now you do."</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>Now Rin looked at him. "Really?" She didn't mean the question; she thought as she spoke. "<em>Me?</em> Because of me!"</p>
<p>"Yes. All of that. I told you."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0136"><h2>136. White Knuckles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin didn't know what to say.</p><p>Sesshomaru led her to believe he simply went on living while she wept and mourned for weeks. To think he left her to '<em>live as a demon' </em>just so he could slaughter Kami knows how many indiscriminately.</p><p>She's seen him in battle. Jaken was right. Sesshomaru <em>was</em> magnificently terrible. He had a frightening way of moving that was so instantaneous one stride was sufficient to leave an afterimage of his form, the settling of his hair the only indication that he had indeed moved.</p><p>Rin gripped her knees, white-knuckled and tense.</p><p>In her mind flashed images of dismembered bodies piled in mangled heaps, others melted with parts still intact.</p><p>Guilt gnawed her insides, as if his actions were somehow, however indirectly, her fault. She knew it was an irrational thought but she couldn't help thinking it anyway.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0137"><h2>137. Empty Hand</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Come," came his quiet voice when the silence stretched too long, "I'll take you somewhere out of the wet."</p><p>Sesshomaru was standing, and Rin stared at the large, pale hand extended before her. "No, I'll ride my horse," she told him, leaving his claws empty.</p><p>She stood. But before she walked away, she turned her dripping face to him for so long it was as though for the last time. Her jaw tightened. He looked miserable in the rain. His face seemed not his face; and the silver hair that clung to him, a glossy-white curtain which appeared opaque when dry, was nearly translucent when soaking wet.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0138"><h2>138. Passionate Words</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The ache coiling in his throat could choke.</p><p>Sesshomaru couldn't stand watching her leave. He started up suddenly, pouring out his emotion in a torrent of passionate words.</p><p>"Was it not Rin who said she understood what was necessary for me?" he asked, speaking in low hurried sentences. "Was she honest, or merely caught in the enthusiasm of our reunion?"</p><p>Rin whirled but did not approach. She didn't have to, he was coming to her. "No. I meant what I said."</p><p>"And is it not for that reason or another that I might have taken life anyway?"</p><p>"It is. I realize that now." Ake's reins were in her hand, and she gripped them tightly. "But you don't regret what you did," she said, looking up at him. "You're not sorry for it. Only that I'm upset."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0139"><h2>139. Trust</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin mounted Ake but didn't give her command. She let out a heavy sigh. "I still want to believe you're good."</p><p>"You judge me harshly, Rin. I am neither good nor evil. I just <em>am</em>." Now this was a perspective she had not considered. "If you claim to understand me then let me be truly understood, without regret or disgust, without a shadow of turning. Do you hear the appeal I am making to you?" She hadn't uttered a word. "If I cannot have your hand, the least you can give me is your mouth."</p><p>"Yes, my Lord, I hear it."</p><p>"And?"</p><p>"And it pains me to hear it, because I trust you with my eyes shut."</p><p>Sesshomaru opened and closed his mouth. Rin said it so easily that if he hadn't heard it with his own ears, he would have never thought it possible for one to have so much faith in another.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0140"><h2>140. Fondness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There followed a long silence, only broken by the sound of rain and weight shifting atop a leather saddle.</p><p>Sesshomaru gazed past her, out over the stream and into a break in the woods. "You think I saved you then to cause you pain now?"</p><p>"Lord Sesshomaru…"</p><p>"Care to know," he said, fixing his eyes on her. "Rin, do you not guess how fond I am of you? It is in proportion to my respect for you and my desire for your happiness." He talked in his usual deadpan, but there was a quality in his voice she had never heard before; a tenderness that went quickly through her heart and veins. "Rin, have you any idea?" he started again. "The fondness is very great and the desire very sincere."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>You guys are amazing. Thank you for the reviews. &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0141"><h2>141. Breathless</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the first time Rin had heard the voice of passion, and she listened without moving, as though paralyzed by surprise.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru was rarely demonstrative, both in his expressions and words. Yet he disclosed himself so boldly, with little mind to his habit of disguising what he felt.</p>
<p>That word.</p>
<p>
  <em>Fondness.</em>
</p>
<p>Rin had always wanted to hear it from his mouth in connection to her. But she was at a loss on how to proceed. Talk of his feelings? Ask him to explain? Her Lord who one moment spoke of cutting throats, and in the next his affection for her?</p>
<p>Here she turned away from him so he wouldn't see the blood rising in her face. "My Lord..." she said, breathless, "the things you say to me..."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0142"><h2>142. Said Too Much</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Do you doubt these things?"</p><p>"No, but…"</p><p>"Then why do you still sit on your horse? Why not climb down?"</p><p>Rin lowered her head demurely. "You embarrass me."</p><p>"And that's good enough a reason…" he tried to say, but he frowned and the words died in his throat.</p><p>With a shock, Rin realized something.</p><p>Sesshomaru must believe he upset her so much that she was leaving for good. "It's not that!" she said fast. "It's just you've given me a lot to think about, and a long ride will help me process it."</p><p>His realization was visceral and sudden.</p><p>"... I see. Go sort yourself out then," he said. "I should like to do the same."</p><p>Without another word, he returned to the tree, under which he promptly sat.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0143"><h2>143. Behind The Mask</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin stroked Ake's neck, then pulled on the reins to turn him around.</p><p>Before she tore off, she gave Sesshomaru one more glance, and what she saw in his eyes made her heart lurch.</p><p>The word that best described Sesshomaru had always escaped her. After all, there were many to use. Stoic, indifferent, even delicate—the latter because of his face and clothing. But now as a young woman, she could see that there was the suggestion of a lurking sensuality about him. Dark and smoldering just beneath the surface.</p><p>Rin straightened her back. She had the eerie feeling he was looking at her from far within himself, as though behind a mask while the canine in him merely slept. There was no danger, of course. But something about this gaze, the way it traveled down her body then up again…</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0144"><h2>144. Sultry Looks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin had her share of admirers. She knew what it meant when a male looked at a woman like that. She also knew what could happen when a woman understood what it meant.</p>
<p>But the fact that it was Sesshomaru who slid his eyes up and down the length of her body and not some random villager…</p>
<p>Then again, she had been soaked to the bone. And when wet, silk clings to the skin, leaving little to the imagination. And Sesshomaru is a man… sort of. And—</p>
<p>
  <em>Oh, no.</em>
</p>
<p>Rin was thinking in circles.</p>
<p>She rode off in order to reflect on his demon nature, on how he spent his time after so many years apart from her. Instead, she thought about the steady regard of golden eyes, the sultry looks she failed to notice. Looks that might explain why he was always wound tight whenever she slept beside him.</p>
<p>"No," she said out loud. "That can't be it…"</p>
<p>
  <em>It could.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>It might.</em>
</p>
<p>Rin felt a little thrill of anticipation, because now she was thinking about what Kaede had told her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm still not over the latest Hanyo no Yashahime trailer. It looks so good. I can't wait for it! I love Towa. Setsuna is a little mini maru, and Moroha is an adorable little hell raiser. I love them all, but Setsuna is definitely my personal favorite.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0145"><h2>145. So Love Him</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was almost dark.</p><p>Not until Sesshomaru heard the thundering of hooves did he move from where he sat.</p><p>He stood as Rin slowed Ake to a stop.</p><p>When she left, she appeared startled by something. She didn't even want him holding her hand, so he hadn't expected her to jump down from her horse and embrace him.</p><p>At first, he didn't move, tense. He wouldn't have thought someone so petite could hug him so tightly. But slowly he melted into her, and with both arms held her to him, when before his embrace had always been incomplete in some way.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0146"><h2>146. Title</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaken didn't know what to make of this open display of affection. He knew better than to intrude, so he held onto his staff as though it were his lifeline, watching out of his peripheral vision.</p><p>The little demon might as well be apart of the scenery.</p><p>"Are you sorted?" Sesshomaru asked, his nose buried in her wind-tossed hair.</p><p>"You might say so," Rin answered, pulling back a little. "But I still hate what you did."</p><p>"So hate it," he said. "I don't say that you can't. Just so long as you understand."</p><p>Her grip tightened on his sleeves, and she looked up at him, her hair falling away from her face. "Sesshomaru..." she said softly, almost haltingly, "promise me something."</p><p>It was the first time Rin addressed him without his title, and she waited for him to correct her.</p><p>But the correction never came.</p><p>Instead, his lids came down slowly.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0147"><h2>147. Demon Eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin would attempt to rule Sesshomaru by his fondness for her. She wanted him to promise not to kill needlessly, to be more than curious about the concept of <em>mercy. </em>Not only for the sake of others, but also for hers, and her conscience. And as Sesshomaru would give her anything, he gave her his word, knowing she would never take advantage of his affections and mistreat him.</p><p>They walked for some distance, until divinely alone—quite far from Jaken.</p><p>"Can you see?" Rin said. There was no moon, and hardly any stars.</p><p>"Perfectly."</p><p>Rin stopped suddenly in her walk. "Then look over there with your demon eyes," she told him, pointing to a hulking silhouette across the grass. "Is that what I think it is?"</p><p>"That depends what you're thinking."</p><p>"A cliff?"</p><p>"A rock shelf."</p><p>"Do you think it's dry underneath?"</p>
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<a name="section0148"><h2>148. Dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was dry enough.</p><p>Good thing too. No sooner did they reach the cliff did it start raining again.</p><p>Sesshomaru scooped Rin in his arms. With a single bound, he leapt up the rocks, landing where a large slab of stone would shield them from the rain.</p><p>Almost a full foot shorter than him, Rin could walk underneath the slab at her full height while Sesshomaru had to crouch. She might have laughed had she seen this. But even if she had turned around, she wouldn't be able to see him. She could scarcely see her own hand in front of her face.</p>
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<a name="section0149"><h2>149. Pine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You're shivering."</p>
<p>His silky voice was a deep whisper in her ear.</p>
<p>Rin turned around. "I am a little cold…"</p>
<p>He was close. She could smell the pine coming from him.</p>
<p>There was something tantalizing about being alone with him in the dark. What was he doing now? Standing there looking at her? He could stare as much as he liked and she'd have no way of knowing.</p>
<p>Rin's heart beat a little faster.</p>
<p>Her first reaction was to fold her arms around her chest. Her second was ignoring the tingle of self-consciousness that went through her. She had no reason to feel nervous around him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you enjoy the next 10 or so chapters. As I've said, romance isn't my strongest suit. I'm doing my best.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0150"><h2>150. Seeing Eye Inu</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru guided Rin to a wall, which he propped himself against while her head rested on the curve of his bicep. She talked to him in the dark. Making conversation about this and that and nothing at all. It was one-sided, with her lips moving constantly and him being content to listen to the sound of her sweet voice.</p><p>"Oh. You never told me," she said suddenly.</p><p>"Never told you what."</p><p>"What it's like for you. Can you see in the dark as well as the day?" she asked. "Explain it to me."</p><p>"I can't describe it exactly," he said slowly. "Only that colors are muted. Like seeing the world tinted in ghostly day."</p>
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<a name="section0151"><h2>151. Beautiful</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I wish I could see your face," Rin said.</p><p>"I assure you nothing about it has changed."</p><p>"It's just I'd like to see it, that's all. It's… Well, you're very... " She turned a little, looking straight ahead into the pitch black.</p><p>"<em>Hn…</em> What aren't you saying?" he wondered. Rin could tell by the direction of his voice that he was looking down at her. "Do you find me appealing, Rin? Is that it? You think of me as beautiful?"</p><p>Rin breathed out a small laugh, then let her cheek touch against his arm and fur. "I think I love you too much to judge whether or not you're beautiful," she answered earnestly. "But I do think so. Does that make sense?"</p><p>Sesshomaru drew up one leg until bent at the knee, during which he held her very close. He made no sound except to draw one deep breath.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0152"><h2>152. Pointed Ear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sky opened wider and rain poured.</p><p>A blinding flash momentarily lit up the small space, followed by a tremendous clap of thunder.</p><p>Rin sat up a little. She was looking in his direction though not quite at him. In her eyes was a restrained curiosity, and Sesshomaru insensibly prepared himself to learn the meaning behind her expression.</p><p>Rin yearned to touch him, to feel his skin under her fingers. Her hand was hesitant to move; and then it advanced as if she couldn't stop it, to caress his face and stroke his hair. "So soft," she whispered, scratching and fondling with her nails behind a pointed ear. She always wanted to do this, and her desire was innocent enough.</p><p>Only for Sesshomaru it was infinitely more intimate.</p><p>To Inuyoukai, these were so many suggestions.</p>
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<a name="section0153"><h2>153. Emboldened</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Perhaps it was the dark that emboldened her. Perhaps knowing how he felt about her was the reason her thumb played on the corner of his mouth.</p><p>Sesshomaru could guess many reasons why, but his mind went blank as her face moved nearer to his. So near she was breathing on him.</p><p>Rin's heart thundered; her stomach in knots. But those knots were loosening—like her lips. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, then softly on the mouth. The claws on her hip flexed, pricking her, and she heard him sigh.</p><p>"Rin," he said hoarsely, "you torture me."</p>
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<a name="section0154"><h2>154. Vulnerable</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Exhilaration.</p>
<p>Rin was more rapt with the tone in his voice than the words. The voice made him sound more palpable than she once thought possible—vulnerable, and she felt powerful. <em>She </em>was doing this to him.</p>
<p>There was a stirring in her. A fluttery quiver that made her clench and hold as it coiled tighter—and lower than the knots in her stomach.</p>
<p>She would kiss him again, she decided.</p>
<p>But touching his shoulder, she winced.</p>
<p>First, something had to be done about the spikes that guarded him against her.</p>
<p>"Sesshomaru, this hurts me," she said to him softly. "Can you take it off?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ah, reading your reviews makes me so happy! I'm grateful for each one. I hope you enjoy these next chapters.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0155"><h2>155. Yellow Sash</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A long moment passed, as though he pondered her request.</p><p>"... I can," Sesshomaru finally said.</p><p>In the dark, Rin heard him loosening the ties that held his chest guard to his spaulders. The sudden clang of metal hitting the ground startled her. But she didn't want to stop the flow. She swallowed thickly. Now she could hear the lapse of his sash coming undone.</p><p>She had no idea Sesshomaru was staring at her through all of this, wide-eyed and searchingly.</p><p>When his rustling ceased, boldly, Rin smoothed her hand down his neck. Solid shoulders. Strong muscles underneath the silk.</p><p>Rin couldn't stop herself.</p><p>She climbed onto his lap.</p>
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<a name="section0156"><h2>156. Strain</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Firmness for her. Softness for him.</p><p>Sesshomaru's pulse skyrocketed.</p><p>"Rin…"</p><p>When he spoke her name it was the very definition of <em>strain.</em> She sat across his lap, with her behind crushed into his groin and her arm wrapped around his neck. Nowhere was there any space between them. Everything was close and tight, her breasts sealed to his chest, their clothing doing little to keep the feel of their bodies from each other.</p><p>"You're so warm," Rin said. "And…" Realizing how tense he was, she pulled back. "Do you want me to get off?" Truly a question that could be answered in multiple ways. And as his heart began turning over, he struggled with it.</p><p>"Hn…" He was hesitant to say any more lest she discover just how badly she affected him, how much he enjoyed being under the delicious weight of her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0157"><h2>157. Let Her Stay</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"That isn't an answer." Rin shifted on his lap, only to have his claws crease into the curves of her belly, as if quietly reproving her.</p><p><em>Be still, be still, </em>he begged her silently.</p><p>"Why won't you talk to me?"</p><p>"It is difficult to think when you are sitting on me."</p><p>Rin flushed hotly. "I'm sorry. I'll—"</p><p>"No," he said fast, pulling her down when she started to rise. "Stay—sit if you want."</p><p>Her hand played in his hair again; the other she brought to his chest to lay flat. With a dreamy look in her eyes, she proceeded to touch him lewdly and at length, down over every ridge and muscle, down, down…</p>
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<a name="section0158"><h2>158. Weird And Wonderful</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You play with fire," he warned when she reached his navel, but without the tone of truly you should stop, but rather, keep going.</p><p>While Rin did stop, she wondered whether or not Sesshomaru could guess the true effect of his warning on her. Could he know that he only inflamed and fascinated her curiosity further? "I want you to kiss me," she said almost breathlessly. "I want…"</p><p>Rin's breath hitched.</p><p>He held her chin in his claws, tilting her head the way he wanted it. She couldn't be more transparent with him, and he couldn't help but plant a kiss on her forehead and on the bridge of her nose.</p><p>Lower went his head as he ventured down her jaw with his lips and fangs, and sure enough the sigh he drew from her mouth convinced him that what he started to do was well worth continuing.</p><p>A long shudder went through her as he slid his tongue up from her throat to the back of her ear. The lick was weird and wonderful, making it explicitly clear that he was not human.</p>
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<a name="section0159"><h2>159. Petal Soft</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru tasted her scent.</p><p>He didn't care if her hair was in his mouth. He didn't care about his honor, or any promise he vowed to keep to himself.</p><p>Rin was his delicacy, his craving—<em>his curiosity. </em></p><p>He ran his claws through her hair, once, twice, then lowered his lips to hers.</p><p>The kiss was petal-soft and warm.</p><p>And such a shock of pleasure surged through Rin she weakened all over so that Sesshomaru had to support her weight.</p><p>Together they fell away from the world.</p><p>They savored each other. Tender at first, until his tongue slipped inside and heightened the nature of the kiss. Deeper, wetter, <em>hotter, </em>it became something else altogether, something far more perilous and desperate.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I love you guys. Now, let's turn up the heat...</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0160"><h2>160. Ragged</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When they needed air, their breaths came ragged and harsh.</p><p>"Sesshomaru..." Rin murmured, her blood roaring in her ears. "Oh, Sesshomaru."</p><p>His name left her lips on a breathy sigh. Every muscle in his body grew taut. He wanted more. Needed to hear what other sounds he could draw from her pretty mouth.</p><p>Sesshomaru took her gently by her middle, arranged her on his lap so that her back lay against his heaving chest. Staring down her body, he made no attempt to keep his arousal from Rin, letting her feel the full hardness of him as he summoned his fur around them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0161"><h2>161. Novelty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It felt so good to be surrounded by him, with his hands working on her.</p><p>If only Rin could see the look on his face. She might understand how new this was for him too. His eyes were concentrated on his hands, following the motion of his claws like a male completely enthralled by what he was touching. Such adoration in his expression. Such blatant, unabashed desire. His handling of her had an experimental quality about it, as though her body held some novelty he just couldn't get used to.</p><p>He touched her nipples through her kimono, the brush mostly palm and fingertips. "Do you like it?" Sesshomaru asked her. He sounded out of breath.</p><p>Rin could only whimper.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0162"><h2>162. Throbbing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin was overwhelmed, by him, by her carnal awakening and the throbbing of it. She felt her breasts shaped by firm hands; lifted, squeezed and spread. It went quickly to her blood and the hollow ache between her thighs, which she tried to contain by bringing her legs together at the knees.</p><p>Her body betrayed her.</p><p>She couldn't keep still.</p><p>He couldn't close his mouth.</p><p>On its own, her body began to move in a slow, tantalizing roll of breasts to hips. It was then she heard—or rather felt—a low rumbling coming from him. Not quite a growl, but very soft and deep in the throat.</p>
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<a name="section0163"><h2>163. Restraint</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Somehow Rin ended up on her back, cushioned by a cloud of fur.</p><p>Broad hips spread her legs wide. Hair tickled her face, and something hard like the hilt of a katana nudged at her.</p><p>She gasped.</p><p>"Squirm too much," he said hotly in her ear, his shoulders trembling with restraint.</p><p>"I'm sorry," she whispered.</p><p>Sesshomaru inhaled deeply. He could smell it, her arousal. "Rin," he started to say, and half out of his mind, "I love that face. Move your hands—don't you dare hide it from me." His hand traveled down her body. Lower it crept in that heart-tightening stop in time without stopping in movement, below her navel, over the spread of her sweltering thighs to hike her kimono up even further. "Say it. Tell me what you want from me."</p><p>The storm raged.</p><p>Another flash broke through the pitch black, lighting up the darkness long enough for her to see his collar hanging loose around his neck and shoulders, the red of his eyes, before plunging her back into blindness.</p><p>"S-Sesshomaru," she stammered, I—"</p><p>"<em>Say it slowly</em>," he rasped at her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0164"><h2>164. Abandon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin was exposed, her clothing gathered around her hips.</p>
<p>She tried to think.</p>
<p>But it was as though she had no brain, no room for her own thoughts. There was only the afterimage of crimson eyes and the prod of his imploring erection.</p>
<p>It seemed she wanted to speak.</p>
<p>"What?" Sesshomaru said, his tasteless breath gusting warm in her face. "<em>What is it?"</em></p>
<p>The wildness in his speech gave a thrill so wicked Rin shuddered. She grabbed his collar and <em>pulled</em>. "Kiss me again… Sesshomaru, kiss me..." she whispered, as though her thoughts had spread completely into delirium.</p>
<p>They kissed without abandon, crowding together at the hips and rocking with the ache of it.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru came down on his elbows, letting her bear the full weight of his body.</p>
<p>He was heavy, but pleasantly so.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ya nasty. All of you. Just kidding, this is my jam. But I am a little overwhelmed by the feedback. I just... wow. You guys really like my humble little story. I'm beyond flattered. Honestly.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0165"><h2>165. Scorched</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru reared back on his knees and shrugged out of his kimono. When it hung carelessly off his hips, he took Rin by her wrist and pulled her up too.</p><p>Realizing he was now half-naked, she took it upon herself to venture down his torso with her fingers, to feel his muscles under his skin, and to be scorched by his blood-heat.</p><p>"Here," he said to her in the dark, "put your hand on this…"</p><p>Rin was not prepared, and it <em>twitched. </em>But after the shock of touching a cock for the first time diminished, she gripped it firmly through the silk.</p><p>—and firmly grasp it was all she did. She didn't know what else to do with it, or him for that matter.</p><p>A rare smirk curled Sesshomaru's mouth. "It seems you're favorably impressed."</p><p>Something like that.</p><p>Rin swallowed hard.</p><p>Its width was somewhat disconcerting. Thick from the base to the tip.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0166"><h2>166. Soft Belly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin could practice stroking him later.</p><p>There was far too much clothing involved in this operation, and she should already be naked.</p><p>He didn't bother with her sash. Rather, he pulled on the double-stitched collar at her throat, the underlayers too. Slowly, he slipped the material over her shoulders, until her breasts were revealed and her kimono hung from her middle like his.</p><p>Pert with the nuance of the tenderest pink, and large enough to fit in his hands. Her chest was delicate, narrow like her waist. Soft belly. Shapely hips spreading out at the curve.</p><p>Immediately, Rin's arms flew to her chest. Not to hide from him, but to stop the shiver that traveled down her spine.</p><p>'I can warm you better," he offered, pure silk, before pulling her into the sultry oblivion of skin against skin.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0167"><h2>167. Fang Teeth</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He kissed her devotedly.</p><p>She swooned on her knees.</p><p>With the disparity in size between them, the proportion being two to one, Rin was like a waif in his arms.</p><p>So soft, so frail.</p><p>With his lips, Sesshomaru took her down by the throat. His fangs bit her here, scraped her there; the small of her neck, under her breasts, down to the spread of her hips. Each time she'd flinch, and each time he'd lick her afterwards, as though asking for her forgiveness. But never hard enough to break the skin, enough only to leave a shallow impression of his teeth.</p><p>Her whimper turned into a moan when he finally took a hardened peak into his mouth. He alternated between her breasts, sucking and teasing as though taking little drinks from them, and when he pinched, rolling her nipples in his fingers, her back arched to such an extent she all but lifted him on top of her.</p><p>She was just so… responsive.</p><p>And the more she writhed and strained underneath him, the more agitated he became.</p>
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<a name="section0168"><h2>168. Sleek Down</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin lay trembling, chest heaving, her hair fanning out along his fur like roots.</p><p>Drunk on everything thus far, the sights and sounds of her body which he fed on like a fiend, gradually his hand restarted its endeavor to that sleek down of delicate curls.</p><p>He sucked another kiss from her, then asked her a question that was no less than filthy.</p><p>Rin had hardly heard it, stunned stiff, for no one else had touched her there. His palm was sealed to her sex, clinging to her, as it were. And <em>oh, God</em> he was still talking, telling her in her ear of the pleasures she'll enjoy.</p><p>"How I'll wet it," Sesshomaru went on, "when I put my tongue here. I'll make the strokes long, let it penetrate deep. Would you like that, Rin?"</p><p>He spoke to her with heat and fervor, proving his powerful desire to have this happen.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0169"><h2>169. Idly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin was reeling.</p><p>The back of her head hit the fur.</p><p>She never heard such talk in her life, and she flushed so hotly it was as though the dark was tinted with red.</p><p>She squirmed under his hand, reached out in the dark to touch his face—only to gasp and take his hair into her fists when his fingers started to move.</p><p>He caressed her pubic lips with his claws, the right side and the left, before finding that tiny knot of flesh—which he very carefully worked back and forth. She couldn't hold her moan, even though she smothered it in his fur. Her hips rose rigidly, and Sesshomaru, having grown very hot with watching and waiting for an answer, took a hold of himself and, almost idly, began stroking out his own pleasure.</p>
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<a name="section0170"><h2>170. Sticky</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It occurred to Sesshomaru that Rin was unable to speak. Either that or she was too shy to tell him what she really wanted. She almost looked confused, as if struggling with her own pleasure.</p>
<p>Lucky for her she need only lay there and let him work.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru knew precisely what to do with her.</p>
<p>He stroked her sex with his fingers, massaging her, caressing her… caressing her. Not fast, never increasing in speed. But slow, deliberate… torturous.</p>
<p>Then a sharp intake of air, and not from Rin.</p>
<p>"Listen to this," he said, more to himself than to her.</p>
<p>A sticky little sound, almost inaudible.</p>
<p>She was sopping wet, and as his breathing became progressively more pronounced, he listened to everything in quiet awe.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Loved the reviews. You guys kill me. We'll be wrapping this up in the next installment, so just a heads up.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0171"><h2>171. Peep</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin heard him mumble something she couldn't catch, then she heard him moving.</p><p>Sesshomaru got down on his stomach, spreading her legs wide to both the cool air and his panting breath. He parted her lips; and when she was opened, what should peep out from under its hood but what he tortured and teased for the better half of five minutes.</p><p>Rin tensed. He hadn't moved for some time and she could feel him scrutinizing her.</p><p>"Relax," she heard him say.</p><p>"I can't. You're staring… Staring at me there."</p><p>"Indeed…" he drawled. "I am."</p><p>"It's embarrassing."</p><p>"But this is beautiful," he said.</p><p>Despite this, Rin tried to cover herself anyway.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0172"><h2>172. Eaten Up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was always a certain delicacy with Rin. Sesshomaru knew. But right now her delicacy offended.</p>
<p>Slowly, he moved her hands out of the way.</p>
<p>"I don't know how it is for humans," he started up. Rin shuddered. She could feel his voice warm against her most private place. "But when a demon is eaten up by desire he wants to see things—he wants to see everything." His lips touched her <em>there</em>, dragged at her there with each word. "Every wink and flutter," he continued, "and if you let him, even how you make water."</p>
<p>His words melted her brain, and her strength left her.</p>
<p>She could only sigh as he tasted her with one long, lingering lick.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0173"><h2>173. High Art</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru devoured her.</p><p>His tongue was a cunning muscle that swept up one side and down the other. Sometimes in broad strokes, other times centered with a firm tip and sealed lips. He managed a combination of the two with such high art; so harmoniously synchronized the act of licking and sucking, that Rin thought she might faint from joy.</p><p>He was relentless, and she grabbed at everything within her reach. At herself, the fur underneath her, even at his fringe—which she yanked so suddenly she pulled hair out from its roots.</p><p>"Sorry," Rin tried to say. "Sorry… sorry..." She sounded so broken, because as she spoke he shoved his tongue inside—<em>deep</em>, just as he told her he would.</p>
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<a name="section0174"><h2>174. Peak</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She was close.</p><p>Sesshomaru could finish her now, but he decided to be devilish and torment her, even pausing to hover his mouth out of reach just to watch her struggle after him. It put a new hardness in his groin. She was so far gone, and he took great pleasure in her frustration.</p><p>Rin was begging him now. For what she couldn't even say properly.</p><p>So he gave her what she wanted, capturing her in his mouth.</p><p>She moaned as she came, turning to hide her face in his fur—except the claws holding her chin held her so he could witness in full the height of her ecstasy, see her eyes as they rolled white to the back of her head.</p><p>Sesshomaru heard his name, every syllable coming with a gasp. He didn't stop, nor did he relent. He had her trembling, twisting this way and that. Clearly, she was finished, but he wanted to stretch it out. He wanted everything from her. Most of all, he wanted her to endure the exquisite agony of pleasure after the peak.</p>
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<a name="section0175"><h2>175. Ambrosia</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru was lust-sick.</p><p>In his sickness, he was all too eager to lap from her quivering entrance a wetness that had not flowed before. Her scent was intoxicating. Her taste, like ambrosia. He wanted so badly to go on smearing his face. Drown in it. But Rin had enough. She could take no more, her speech unintelligible on all but one word: <em>Stop. </em></p><p>Finally, Sesshomaru relented. He drew back to rest his cheek against her creamy thigh, at last allowing her to float in the afterglow of her orgasm.</p><p>Loose in every limb, Rin lay defeated, her sex throbbing with small, residual contractions. She had touched herself before, but the result had never been so mind-numbingly intense.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sending out love to every reader.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0176"><h2>176. Animal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin would not rest long.</p><p>Her pulse quickened.</p><p>She heard Sesshomaru slipping out of his hakama and boots, his claws rapping against the rock. She could only imagine what he looked like stalking down on her on all fours. Did he crouch? Awkward like a man or with predatory ease? She couldn't guess. She stopped thinking when he grabbed her.</p><p>How jarring it felt to be flipped onto her stomach.</p><p>How harrowing the yank that forced her up on her elbows and knees.</p><p>There was something animal in the way he handled her now. His claws seemed to grope for something he couldn't quite reach, as if trying to touch every inch of her all at once.</p><p>Rin turned her head back at him, unaware that her eyes met his through the dark.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0177"><h2>177. Tip End</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>And then his arms were tight around her waist, holding her, lifting her so that her knees skirted the furs. Her back was pressed to his chest, his own back arched and rigid.</p><p>Rin might have uttered more than a hiss if not for the hot fang-teeth driven hard into her neck. Hard enough to bring the water to her eyes. And she might have gasped when she felt his erection slick between her thighs, with more than the tip end thrusting beyond her crotch and out into space.</p><p>But she trusted him.</p><p>Even as he made a cloak of his demonic aura, smothering her with it, she couldn't help but trust him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0178"><h2>178. Bonded and Marked</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru was felt in all corners of Rin's mind. It seemed his aura plumbed the very depths of her soul, suggesting, imploring, if not scratching and whining and begging to be fed.</p>
<p>Rin had been possessed by demons before, only this time she was made to be conscious of it. It gave her the uncanny feeling of being drawn into a trap, except the trap wasn't springing close on her. There was only his want for her, an onset dire need pulling in every vein, biting hard enough now to trickle blood down his teeth and onto white fur.</p>
<p>Rin was his passion, and Sesshomaru would have no other.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I don't care how many times it's been done. I love the biting bond trope. Did you know that when an individual is possessed by a dog demon (or inugami spirit according to Japanese demon lore) that often their skin is covered with bites and scratches?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0179"><h2>179. First Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin's blood stained his lips.</p><p>Sesshomaru could wait no longer.</p><p>If he didn't complete their bond that instant his control would surely snap.</p><p>"Lie down," he told her, "face down, with your back arched and your legs well spread. Come now, wider still," he continued, panting between breaths, "present yourself to me."</p><p>As Rin assumed the position, he brought both hands to her behind and manipulated it fervidly and at length. Gone was his pretense of decency. He was obscene; he lifted, he spread it again, compelled it to jiggle and shake, and when he thought his heart might burst out of his chest, he mounted her.</p><p>Brokenly, Rin started to talk. "I feel…" she tried to say, and he stopped. Another moment and he would have taken her. "Sesshomaru, I have… <em>so many feelings</em>."</p><p>"Rin," he rasped at her, <em>growled</em>, "I'm as anxious as you are."</p><p>"I pictured my first time differently…"</p><p>"What…" Sesshomaru felt the life go out of him. "What are you saying?"</p><p>"I still wish I could see you."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0180"><h2>180. Icy Water</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru didn't understand.</p>
<p>Rin could feel him, couldn't she? What did it matter if she was helpless to see him? "You may admire me later," he said. He talked in time with his thrusts, gliding back and forth the length of his erection along her pubic lips. Then he drew back suddenly, the tip locating the opening it sought.</p>
<p>"But you don't understand," Rin whispered. She was almost whimpering. On the threat of penetration, held prone by her hips, she became unable to contain herself. "You're not listening. You don't realize..."</p>
<p>That halting tone of voice.</p>
<p>The eyes staring back at him.</p>
<p>The problem with her face was that it startled him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0181"><h2>181. Ravished</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru realized if he failed to quiet his passion in that inevitable moment it would be a grave mistake. One that would surely ruin both for each other.</p><p>The transition back to his senses was instant and permanent.</p><p>"You don't want this." His voice was even, devoid of emotion. This was the truth.</p><p>"I still wish to see you, yes."</p><p>Sesshomaru sat on his haunches.</p><p>As Rin righted herself, crushing her naked behind onto a mass of fur, he looked at her. Really looked at her.</p><p>Rin had been ravished. Her hair wild, the sash loose around her waist the only thing keeping her kimono from slipping. And so many scratches. Superficial at least, as were the bites—all except one, that is. Where her neck came out the shoulder.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0182"><h2>182. Human Nature</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru came to understand Rin's delicacy and how his impatience with it overwhelmed her. For every liberty she took he took another, doubled upon it, outdistanced it entirely. He was too literal in that regard, too inclined to respond to the most obvious—like scents, when she was far more nuanced than that.</p><p>
  <em>She wishes to see me, she says. </em>
</p><p>His jaw tightened.</p><p>During, his face had changed. The color along his cheeks weren't neat lines of magenta, but rather dark slashes. When he drove into her flesh it was with fangs much longer than their usual length. And when he saw her it was in an altered definition, with red eyes so quick and keen he could discern every strand on her head at its roots.</p><p>Sesshomaru wanted her with his demon nature, and his shame, odd as it was scalding, waxed and waxed.</p><p>He'd love her with his human nature, if he had it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0183"><h2>183. Saliva</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"To be honest, I just wanted to kiss you," Rin said, touching at the blood on her neck. She seemed calm enough. "But you're very... uh, <em>excitable</em>—and you bite<em>. </em>I never would have guessed."</p><p>"Forgive me."</p><p>Still touching her neck: "It feels kind of numb."</p><p>Sesshomaru drew in a deep breath. "Merely the way my saliva behaves," he started to explain, "when the intent isn't…"</p><p>Rin turned to the silvery sound of his dying voice. "Intent?"</p><p>"You know."</p><p>"Why should I know this thing?" she said. "Because I don't."</p><p>She heard him move then, his arms passing through silken sleeves. It compelled her to do the same, and when she was decent she waited for him to talk.</p><p>"Forgive me," was all he could manage.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0184"><h2>184. Not Like That</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin felt around for him in the dark. "Why are you so far away?"</p>
<p>She could hear him hesitate. "I haven't completely dressed," he answered.</p>
<p>"Neither have I. But..." On her hands and knees, Rin followed the trail of fur, knowing she'd find Sesshomaru at the end of it. "Come here—touch my hands. They're so cold now."</p>
<p>Her hands were like ice on his face. "Rin…"</p>
<p>"You're upset," she said, touching his jaw and lips.</p>
<p>"Not for that slender reason."</p>
<p>"You're frowning." Rin sat close beside him and took his hand into hers. "I wasn't expecting all of that, is all. You startled me—" Thinking for a moment. "We can continue, if that's what you really—"</p>
<p>"<em>No," </em>he said suddenly. "Not like this—not from you."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Had to use the spray bottle on Sesshomaru, sorry. Don't throw anything at me. I think Rin deserves better than having her first time under a damp slab of rock. She couldn't even see him! She told him twice. But don't worry. There's quite a bit of story left. We've nearly reached the half-way point.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0185"><h2>185. Pristine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When dawn broke, Rin awoke to the sound of rustling.</p>
<p>She sat up to see Sesshomaru standing outside the shelter. He was in the process of putting himself back together; adjusting the hem of his hankimono, fitting armor and knotting the sash. It was tedious and complicated work. He gathered his hair over his shoulder, and as he ran his claws through she wondered how he managed back when he only had one arm.</p>
<p>Was she not caught in the novelty of watching Sesshomaru groom himself, she might have noticed the significance of this.</p>
<p>When he was done making much of himself, pristine with no hair out of place, his gaze fell to hers.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru was elegance in motion, or at least he would have been if not for the dried blood in one corner of his mouth. Her blood.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>hankimono - half kimono</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0186"><h2>186. Robbed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru approached her, crouching as he did.</p><p>Rin smiled at him for a pair of reasons. One, to express the joy she felt seeing his face in the blue light of morning, the other to reassure him—and herself. Few words were said after last night, and there was still a note of repressed tension in the air.</p><p>She strove to move past it.</p><p>Rin experienced a number of firsts, and their kiss, among other things, was better than anything previously imagined. She liked the way his tongue stroked against hers, the strength of his arms as he held her body to his.</p><p>Yet, despite this, there was the vague feeling she had been robbed.</p><p>Sesshomaru explored virtually every inch of her. He licked, he tasted, he bit. Saw everything when Rin could only paint so many pictures with finger tips alone. She wasn't upset with him per se, nor did she feel violated by him. She just wished things could have gone a little differently, <em>slower. </em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0187"><h2>187. Wits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You feel bad." Rin knew. A stranger couldn't notice. To such a stranger the look in Sesshomaru's eyes was one of indifference, not regret.</p>
<p>"Very," he said flatly.</p>
<p>"You shouldn't feel that way."</p>
<p>The irony.</p>
<p>He told her something like that, and like his, her's was a suggestion rather than a command. But he couldn't help himself. There was no misunderstanding here.</p>
<p>A demon led a girl into a dark nook, fondled her, sank hard into her neck and relished in her tiny cry. He did not match her intensity but escorted her to new ones. He let passion overcome cunning and reason, and it was because of his great desire for her that he lost his wits.</p>
<p>Because she is Rin, that's why he felt awful.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0188"><h2>188. No Humor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You've hardly said a word to me, except to apologize."</p><p>Sesshomaru was down on the ground then, and Rin was drawing near, her eyes warm. "Is that how you feel?"</p><p>"You don't have to say it so much. I <em>know </em>you didn't mean it."</p><p>"That's not true."</p><p>Rin shook her head. "You mean you won't do it again," she said, "unless—"</p><p>"Unless?" His laugh was a strange sound in her ears, the kind that had no humor in it. "No, you don't mean that," he said, "because I asked what you wanted and you..." But then he shut up, his face taut with sudden realization. "Rin," he asked her slowly, "did you understand the things I said to you?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0189"><h2>189. Private Thoughts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin started to nod but stopped. Her shoulders drooped. "Not all of it," she admitted, staring down at her hands. "I know it was dirty." She heard him groan, and became animated suddenly. "But I didn't hate it! What happened, I mean. I've thought about you before. I think of you in my private thoughts."</p><p>Sesshomaru was holding his face now. "Rin," he said, "all thoughts are private."</p><p>"Yes but some are more private than others."</p><p>A fair point.</p><p>"Indeed they are."</p><p>"So I know why you lied, why you didn't want to sleep with me." Sesshomaru looked up from his hands, rapt to her. "I figured it out," she said simply. "I think we've wanted the same thing for a while. But we should kiss more first. I liked that."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This sort of thing can stretch too long in fics. Doubt, pining-NOT COMMUNICATING for the sake of it. They want each other and things happened too fast (coughsessdownboyrinwasnotreadyforallthatcough), now they'll work through it.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0190"><h2>190. Don't Ask</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Lord Sesshomaru!" Back at the stream, the first thing Jaken noticed about Rin was the bite on her neck. "What's that?"</p>
<p>She slapped her hand over the bite. "What's what?"</p>
<p>"On your neck?"</p>
<p>"This? It's uh..." Rin was never a good liar, and as she thought of what to say her eyes slid over to her horse. "Oh, Ake!" she exclaimed. "Have you've been good? I bet you're hungry."</p>
<p>She hastened for her horse, mounting him.</p>
<p>"A minute, Rin!" Jaken called out to her.</p>
<p>"I'm sorry but I have to take him to graze. Thank you for watching him though."</p>
<p>Rin nudged Ake in the ribs and tore off, leaving the little demon behind with his question unanswered. He turned to his Lord then, whose glare was so terrible it made him flinch.</p>
<p>Its message was clear: mind your own business.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0191"><h2>191. Quiet Offering</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>But Jaken struggled to mind his own business; because one evening, while stoking the campfire, Sesshomaru strode smoothly up to Rin and presented her with a piglet. Meat from a suckling piglet is sweet and tender, making it highly sought after by both demon and human alike.</p><p>Jaken's jaw dropped he was so stunned.</p><p>Hunting for her? Their Lord who had never so much as offered her a single piece of fruit? And he thought letting her call him out of his name was shocking.</p><p>It seemed Rin too was stunned by Sesshomaru's gesture. He was still holding the animal out to her, his claws wet and shining while she just stared and stared.</p><p>Wherever they were in that moment they were surely there, and not until Jaken resumed feeding the fire did the spell between them finally break.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0192"><h2>192. Moon Talk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>While Rin turned the pig on its spit, Sesshomaru made a face at her. She just told him something he found incredibly hard to believe. "The moon is a rock?"</p><p>"That's what Kagome told me," Rin answered, now checking the yams she dug up for tenderness. "She also told me humans have been there."</p><p>"But it is difficult to breathe beyond the clouds," he insisted.</p><p>Rin cut a piece of skin from the pig. Nearly perfect. "It almost sounds like you've tried flying there yourself."</p><p>Sesshomaru reflected for a moment. "A long, long time ago," he said, "when this one was very small."</p><p>"How small?"</p><p>"As tall as I am while sitting."</p><p>Rin squealed inside her heart. "Kagome said people flew to the moon in a tube of fire. She called it a rocket."</p><p>"Roc-ket…" Sesshomaru had to repeat it. It was strange sounding and difficult to say.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0193"><h2>193. Dream State</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Since Jaken had no choice but to accept what was budding between Rin and his Lord, he didn't scold her so much. In fact, they hardly bickered these days, with Jaken more than willing to share with her the extent of the empire Sesshomaru was slowly trying to establish.</p><p>Tonight the little demon unfurled a map, showing the full extent of his territory to her. Immediately Rin noticed the number of human villages his range encircled. "They do not know it," Jaken started to explain, "and though he will never interfere with your wars, through Lord Sesshomaru there is little threat from demon-kind."</p><p>Sesshomaru leaned against a tree nearby, and while Jaken showed Rin where they were now, he slipped into a dream state. His eyes, usually sharp and quick, dulled with the memory of what happened weeks ago in the dark. He was looking at her still, but he did not see Rin sitting there with his servant. He saw her naked on his furs. There was something about her face, something about her look of near pain when she climaxed which remained unforgettable.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0194"><h2>194. North</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Later that night, Rin tried her best to keep Sesshomaru from leaving. She straddled his hips, running her fingers through his fringe and scalp. His hair was gripped in both of her hands, and as she pulled his face near, kissing him, she almost succeeded in convincing him to stay.</p><p>But generations of instinct fell from him.</p><p>He wanted to take her north, where onsens were plentiful and game was easier to find. A well to do human village resided there, and yesterday she mentioned something about wanting rice. But first, he had to walk the area. It was located on one of his borders and he had yet to patrol it.</p><p>Their last kiss lingered so long Sesshomaru thought he might never leave.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Fluffy I know. But you guys are in for a fun time in the next update.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0195"><h2>195. Scheming</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru left Rin wrapped in a blanket by the fire.</p><p>At night, there was no choice but to keep her close, warming her with his blood-heat and fur. Summer had long lapsed into autumn. The leaves were still green however, only now changing into yellows and browns.</p><p>How silvery her breath in the darkness of night.</p><p>Rin deserved better than a cold wash in the morning. So tonight he would roam, and when he was done he'd make his way back to her, and the face he was helpless to stop himself from touching.</p><p>Sesshomaru flew for hours until arriving in the north. He landed softly on the ground, inhaling deep the crisp air. He reached out with every sense, scrunching leaves under his boots so all would hear him coming.</p><p>But something was off.</p><p>
  <em>Are demons scheming? </em>
</p><p>Complete and utter silence when there should have been night-song or other signs of life.</p><p>Then it hit him—the scent of blood and rotting meat.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0196"><h2>196. Take Heed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Naga.</p><p>30 or more slithering about.</p><p>Among the serpents, surrounded by so many leering slits, Sesshomaru stood imperiously in the moonlight. There were too many to look on at once, so his eyes slid shut, his ears moving both together and independently as he followed their movements.</p><p>"Leave or perish."</p><p>Give the wretches a chance to flee with scales intact. That's what Rin wanted him to be—a benevolent Lord.</p><p>Not one heeded his warning.</p><p>A great hiss rose around him, a cacophony of rasps and clicks that ebbed down only to start up anew.</p><p>Sesshomaru summoned a lash and cracked it.</p><p>His whip was an extension of his hand, a manifestation of his very self. And like his claws, he could curve it as easily as he curled any finger.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0197"><h2>197. Great Snake</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru turned to leave before the life bled out of the last serpent.</p><p>But then he stopped.</p><p>More than the serpents' dying breath, there were slighter sounds. A naga that not only slithered but also scraped claws against the ground in its advance.</p><p>The naga emerged from the forest with a hiss, its muzzle high and its hood flared opened.</p><p>Sesshomaru immediately drew Bakusaiga and let the blast fly.</p><p>But the demon was too quickly for that.</p><p>It dodged, then countered with an attack of its own, opening its great mouth and spitting forth a writhing tangle of snakes.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0198"><h2>198. Arrogance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lifting his arm, Sesshomaru cut his blade across in a wide arch, destroying all but one snake.</p><p>Fangs pierced his calf, but he gave no sign. Didn't even pull the teeth from his flesh.</p><p>He would pay for his arrogance. His next leap came with a delay.</p><p>
  <em>Something's wrong with it. </em>
</p><p>The venom wasn't potent enough to kill him, but it was, however, sufficient to slow the action of his leg. Eventually, his entire body.</p><p>It was the moment the naga had been waiting for, and it sprang into action, slithering toward him.</p><p>Sesshomaru had but an instant to react before becoming fully paralyzed.</p><p>He <em>threw </em>Bakusaiga.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0199"><h2>199. Worry</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Something's wrong."</p><p>"Rin, I just want to eat my fish."</p><p>"But Sesshomaru should be back by now. He said he would only be gone for a day or two—it's been <em>four </em>days." Rin stared into the fire, her brows drawn together in worry. Her trout overcooked and she didn't care. She lost her appetite. "Something's happened to him," she said in a small voice, "I just know it."</p><p>"Now who can do that?"</p><p>Rin thought for a moment, then gasped. "You don't think… That other Lord—"</p><p>"No, I do not." Jaken would hear none of this. "And you should know your lack of faith in him would cut him deeper than any sword. You trouble yourself for no good reason."</p><p>"How can you say that when there are other dog demons? How do you know?"</p><p>Jaken stopped eating and sighed. Rin figured out the only thing in this world that could threaten their Lord's life was another Inuyoukai. But he couldn't let her go on like this, waxing in worry.</p><p>"All I know is our Lord has been in better spirits since you've rejoined us. Hardly any rocks." Rin smiled despite herself. It was true. Sesshomaru was definitely more tolerant of the little demon. "I'm sure he will come flying back to you when he is finished. Now, please," Jaken begged her, taking her trout from the fire, "eat your fish."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The longest chapter so far is Jaken trying to cheer up Rin. Imagine that.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0200"><h2>200. Strange Wind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Five days.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru had yet to return after five days.</p>
<p>Last night was particularly cold. Frost coated the ground, and Rin slipped more than once walking the path to the stream. She loathed to bathe in such chilly water, so she thought to bring her pot with her. Jaken would gladly warm the water for her with his two-headed staff when she returned.</p>
<p>Rin was walking back to camp when a gust of wind blew at her back. The gust was so strong she dropped her pot.</p>
<p>Something in the wind… It wasn't natural at all.</p>
<p>She reached inside her kimono and touched for her dagger. She spun around, and there adjusting her furs stood someone she had not seen in years.</p>
<p>"You there," came her sultry voice, "<em>girl</em>."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Okay, so I may have lied about the last chapters being fun. However, it is definitely coming. Trust me. ;)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0201"><h2>201. Stale Scent</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin froze with instant surprise.</p>
<p>"Y-you're," she stammered. The demoness responded to these stutters with an arched brow, at which Rin paused for a moment. "... Lady mother." And she shut up again.</p>
<p>"<em>Ho?</em> What would a human know about me?" Inukimi wondered. "I have caused no scandals. I think I shall hear the rumors later, from start to finish." Then striding on velvet feet, making no sound as she walked. She stood before Rin, looking down her fine nose, as she was a head taller. "The scent has gone stale," she said, "but I am certain of it—I can smell Sesshomaru on you."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0202"><h2>202. Elfen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tall, ethereal, fine silks covering her to the ground. Of any demoness Inukimi seemed the most elfen-esque. Her face was very beautiful to Rin, perhaps because in spite of her feminine features Sesshomaru was all her.</p><p>Inukimi reached for Rin, touching the sleeve of her kimono. Even her hand enthralled her. The claws were carefully lacquered, the fingers so white, so delicate. "I recognize this stitch work," she remarked. Her voice was vague, without interest. "It is the brilliance of my personal seamstress."</p><p>Rin's heart soared when she learned this. She flattened her hand over her chest. "You are certain?"</p><p>"Quite so."</p><p>"Sesshomaru has always given me—"</p><p>"<em>Sesshomaru?"</em> Sometimes quiet is mischievous. "Who are you, girl? And why, pray tell, do you speak his name so familiarly?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0203"><h2>203. Spiteful Child</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Come now. Let's hear it."</p><p>A chilly breeze rustled the ribbons in Inukimi's hair.</p><p>Rin stared down her robes, her eyes settling on where fur lined the hem. Briefly, she wondered why the mother donned two pelts when the son only carried one. "Don't you remember me? Eight years ago, Sesshomaru took me to your castle. A boy traveled with us, an imp too"</p><p>Inukimi's brows lifted. "The girl I revived," she said. "The girl he jumped into the underworld for?"</p><p>"Yes, my Lady. I'm Rin."</p><p>"How delightful!" Inukimi exclaimed. "I thought you were dead."</p><p>Rin shook her head once. "No. I was sent to live in a human village, with Inuyasha. Sesshomaru didn't tell you?"</p><p>Inukimi smiled, and Rin had looked, and fixedly, at her painted lips; saw the fang-teeth only just bared. "He is most cross with his dear mother," she said. "A spiteful child—as secretive as he is haughty. Why, if I were to climb his mountainous ego and slip, the fall would surely break my neck."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0204"><h2>204. The Mark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin, almost lost in her contemplation of Sesshomaru's relationship with his mother, was abruptly forced out of her thoughts when claws reached for her again. Her chin was held for a moment, the hair against her neck lifted. The bite was now a trace scar; four neat punctures spaced just apart.</p><p>"Oh, my," Inukimi said, "an unrequited bond." Rin steadied herself. His mother knew the reason for these scars and she prayed she wouldn't ask for any details. "And I take it you do not know where he is?"</p><p>"N-no."</p><p>"I see." Inukimi smoothed down Rin's hair, covering her neck. Then she turned away, giving the girl her back to look at. "How very fortuitous for me then."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0205"><h2>205. Live Bait</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I don't understand." Rin shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "Aren't you worried? And what do you mean 'unrequited?'"</p><p>But then a change in the air, heavy and oppressive like a weight on her chest.</p><p>Silver hair swirled like white smoke, falling and rising in waves.</p><p>Inukimi faced her suddenly, and seeing her eyes bleeding red, her mouth stretching away from her face, instantly gave Rin a jolt of alarm. "Don't be frightened," she said, more rasp than voice.</p><p>Before Rin could utter one more word, Inukimi's true form broke through and snatched her from the grass.</p><p>It was imperative that she speak to Sesshomaru at once, and taking his beloved would no doubt ensure a rare visit to her castle.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ooh, Sesshomaru will not be happy when he finds out about this.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0206"><h2>206. Aftermath</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Not far from Sesshomaru, about three lengths of him head to foot, lay the naga's now rotting corpse. Just below the serpent's ribcage was the hilt of Bakusagia, with all of the blade being buried through the belly.</p><p>For days Sesshomaru lay paralyzed on the forest floor. Many times he tried to gain his feet, and each time his body betrayed him. He was unable to turn over, let alone will his fur to move for his own comfort.</p><p>With the naga's venom coursing through his veins, he had no other choice but to sweat it out.</p><p>It was on the 6th day, and by convulsive efforts, was he finally able to stand.</p><p>His steps were shaky at first, but once in motion, he stayed in motion.</p><p>Sesshomaru pulled his sword from the naga's stomach and flicked it clean. Then he flew away.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0207"><h2>207. Missing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Fool!"</p><p>Jaken no sooner heard this than he threw himself on the ground. He groveled perfectly at Sesshomaru's boots, beseeching him to spare his miserable life.</p><p>But with Rin missing his Lord was inconsolable.</p><p>Sesshomaru reeled him in with his fur and, without let, squeezed his neck until Jaken could get little air. Less and less with each breath.</p><p>"Please, milord!" Jaken cried, "let me speak. If your lordship would be so merciful, if he would only loosen the grip on my throat a little—" The fingers around his neck tightened, and he became hysterical. "—please!" he wailed. "So that I might explain!"</p><p>Jaken landed on his back with a thud.</p><p>"How long," Sesshomaru demanded to know.</p><p>"Yesterday," Jaken managed through his coughs. "I searched all day and all night for her—I swear it upon my knees. But I do not possess a canine's keen nose, and her beast needed tending to, you see. That is why you found me here this morning."</p><p>For a moment Sesshomaru glared down at Jaken with unseeing eyes, his face caving into hatred. Then with a sudden gesture, wild and frantic, he turned his nose to the air and hurried away.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0208"><h2>208. Trickery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru tracked Rin's scent to a nearby stream. There, he saw her cooking pot turned-over in the dirt, observed the trampled grass. Her footprints told a story. She was surprised by a demon and whirled to face it. At one point, even approached it.</p><p>But her scent ended here. Swooped upon by some flying demon, he quickly surmised.</p><p>Sesshomaru was crestfallen. Her kidnapper left no trace of his or herself.</p><p>Or so he thought.</p><p>He paused in his walk, detecting something familiar.</p><p>Instantly his worry transformed into annoyance.</p><p>
  <em>The moody nonsense she irritates me with. </em>
</p><p>Only <em>she</em> could put on the performance of walking when really she hovered underneath her many robes. Only one capable of the trick. Only one so disinclined to walk among others.</p><p>Sesshomaru craned his head up towards the sky.</p><p>If not for the tail-end of his mother's pelt making contact with the grass, leaving behind a single tuft of fur, he might have never figured it out.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0209"><h2>209. Mirror</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Not long after, Sesshomaru materialized from an orb of light at the gate of his mother's castle.</p>
<p>Standing guard were two Inuyoukai who had not been informed of his arrival—if the look on their faces was any indication. "Young master," they said in unison, bowing.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru climbed the long flight of steps two at a time, sometimes three. Other guards lining the stairs bowed in his passing, and each subsequent pair after them.</p>
<p>At the top of the stairs sat his mother on her great throne, sipping wine and regarding him from behind the rim of the saucer she held. Beside her was Rin—and dressed in a kimono he had not given her. This one was pink, with accents of purples and blues.</p>
<p>Here Sesshomoru put on a magnificent act. Nothing in his eyes, nothing on his face betrayed any emotion.</p>
<p>That is until his mother smiled at him.</p>
<p>It was like looking into a mirror, seeing his smirk on her face.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This might be it for a little while. I'm looking forward to Yashahime premiering this weekend and might be too distracted to edit. Not too long, I promise.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0210"><h2>210. Wounded</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin's face lit up when she saw him standing there. "Sesshomaru!" she said, springing up from the throne, "I've been so worried. What kept you?"</p><p>"Vermin," he answered. "But nevermind that. Come, we leave."</p><p>"Stay, girl."</p><p>At Inukimi's command, Rin promptly sat back down.</p><p>Sesshomaru tried to overcome the slight but couldn't. Quite frankly, this wounded him. "Rin," he said softly to her, "you would shun me for her if she told you to." A frown pulled at his mouth. But then he focused on his mother and the grimace melted away, leaving a stern expression there. He said directly to her, "This is mine."</p><p>"So she is," Inukimi said, almost resignedly. She sipped from her saucer, then set it down. "Though not entirely…"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0211"><h2>211. Nosey</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Inukimi rose from her throne, elegance reigning in all her movements and doings. She stood tall before her son, with Sesshomaru taller still. She put herself between Rin and himself, and when he realized what she had done his anger was up in his mouth, pushing at the back of his teeth. "Why do you conspire to keep her from me?"</p><p>"Conspire?" his mother repeated innocently. "Why accuse me of this thing? Do you think I would dream of keeping you from what enthralls you so?" Silence. He merely listened to her words with scornful incredulity. His own eyes were not to be disbelieved. "Pray answer me truly, Sesshomaru. You've become attached to the forests with her, with the completest abandon to all else, have you not?"</p><p>It was then Sesshomaru glanced over his mother's shoulder to see Rin shaking her head. He thought as much. She wouldn't share something like that with her when she could hardly talk about it herself with him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0212"><h2>212. Human Needs</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"To the point, mother—and quickly."</p><p>"She is dear to you." More silence from him. "I see. Well then, for her sake get her out of the wild and under a roof."</p><p>Sesshomaru turned from her, scoffing. "You're inferring," he said. "What would you know about that?"</p><p>The playfulness in Inukimi's expression suddenly vanished. She was just as stoical standing there, thinking her son a fool. "Listen well," she started. "Females like to be comfortable. When I happened upon her she was not only shivering but also less than clean. I don't have to be a human to understand her needs. I know her partly through her sex. And if you do not believe me," she continued, making an airy gesture with her hand towards Rin, "ask her yourself."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0213"><h2>213. Luxuries</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin had been pampered in her time spent at his mother's castle, that was certain. She had soaked in water scented with lavender, her hair groomed-not that Sesshomaru thought it was messy before—,her face skillfully painted. It only served to enhance what he already found charming about her, but her presentation was enough to give him pause. He didn't think the lengthy robes she wore suited her though. Far too long for one as active as her. Liable to catch on a branch while riding on the back of her horse.</p><p>Still, he considered that he might be out of his element.</p><p>"Is this true," he said to her. "Do you wish for these things… These luxuries."</p><p>Rin seemed startled, thrust into the conversation. Two sets of golden eyes watched her, and she was coy to answer.</p><p>Inukimi offered encouragement. "You need not blush, and still less need you hold your tongue. His type can easily renounce certain comforts for the sake of adventure, or conquest. I call it camping, my dear. But if you should open your mouth, then surely he will give you whatever you so ask."</p><p>Rin stiffened a little. Kaede's wisdom rang true even amongst the clouds, with demon-kind. "It was cold while you were gone," she finally said. "So cold…"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0214"><h2>214. Cause For Alarm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Rin held a certain opinion of Sesshomaru, his mother loathed being the reason that she should be moved from that view. She recommended sending the girl to tea in another room, so she could talk to her son in private.</p><p>Sesshomaru slid open the door which led to his mother's personal chambers, then shut it.</p><p>Inside, Inukimi sat amongst her glare and glitter, her fine tables and trinkets.</p><p>She invited him to sit.</p><p>"I'll stand," he said.</p><p>"Then I won't keep you long," Inukimi said. A long quiet passed, then with a sigh, she revealed her reason for luring him to her castle. "There is no weakness in you. None in your mother, your terrible father—down even to our remotest ancestor. But none either in the Lord whose brother you killed."</p><p>"As you've said, I am without any lacks."</p><p>"Yes, but you jump ahead of your own greatness," she said, "<em>by centuries</em>."</p><p>In her voice was a maternal tenderness concealed only by a stern innuendo that only his ears could ever detect.</p><p>For the first time in his long life his mother feared for him, and it was as insulting as it was alarming.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Well, this certainly was fun. I love writing Inukimi. Also Rin learning the lesson that no matter how much she wishes to, it's a lot harder to wander around with Sesshomaru with winter around the corner.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0215"><h2>215. Lock</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru's boots sounded heavily on the floorboards. When he came to the door which held Rin behind it, he immediately slid open the screen.</p><p>A veritable wave of yearning swelled up from the pit of his stomach to his chest.</p><p>There she was, sitting on a pillow upholstered in silk beside a low table.</p><p>"Sesshomaru," Rin said. She sprang up, nearly clearing the table of its contents with a sleeve much longer than what she was used to minding.</p><p>How he missed her smiling face.</p><p>The joy of seeing her. The relief in finally having a moment alone with her in his mother's castle turned out to be too much for him. He was moving towards her just as she moved towards him, and seconds later her arms were around his neck, clinging so tightly so as to practically lock herself to him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0216"><h2>216. Under Construction</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the north, a passing warm front snapped the unusually frigid autumn weather. Nights weren't so cold lately, and though Rin wouldn't complain even when she had a reason to, still Sesshomaru thought to heed his mother's advice.</p><p>The sun was just beginning to set over the crags as Jaken weighed down a map with two stones. Beside him was an ink well and a pair of brushes. "Might I recommend somewhere far east, milord? Only a day's ride to her village. Ample pastures for her horse to graze, with fresh water running down from the mountains."</p><p>Sesshomaru was only half-listening, but his low hum did sound like approval.</p><p>Not long ago, Rin went to soak in an onsen. But she wasn't alone, nor very far away. He heard her voice in the nearby distance chastising something in a sweet tone.</p><p>Splashing now. Rin's voice had deepened, as though upset.</p><p>Sesshomaru stood then, looking in the direction of all the commotion. "How long," he said.</p><p>"Two weeks, milord. Three at the most."</p>
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<a name="section0217"><h2>217. Monkey Business</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He found Rin clinging to the edge of an onsen. She was submerged up to her collarbone, the water doing too good of a job at distorting her nakedness.</p><p>"Oh, Sesshomaru!" Rin cried. "The monkeys—they took my clothes."</p><p>He stopped in his steps, and, as he were, standing foolishly among a chittering troop of macaques, turned his head to Rin to stare at her sheepish smile.</p><p>"This is stupid."</p><p>Rin looked away from his straight face. "... it is."</p><p>It was the dried plums hidden in the folds of her kimono that the macaques wanted. And after fighting amongst themselves, left her clothing to float in an adjacent spring.</p><p>But as with mortal dogs, so too did the little thieves fear Inuyoukai. A glance was sufficient to send the troop scrambling in every direction, even were they to slip and fall down the rocks.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0218"><h2>218. Off His Back</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Snake demons?"</p><p>"I tried to be merciful, but they were determined to die."</p><p>"I see."</p><p>The fire crackled.</p><p>Rin watched the flames dance across the firewood. Hanging nearby was her kimono—the one Sesshomaru had given her and not his mother's. She was given another to wear that night; the very silk from his back. It was so large on her she swam in it.</p><p>Her hair was pulled back and thickly plaited.</p><p>Sesshomaru watched as she shook it loose and ran her brush through it. "If any had fled, know that I would not have given chase."</p><p>"Of course," Rin said after a while. "But something else, please. I'm just glad you're safe."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0219"><h2>219. Invitation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Sesshomaru, you stare too long." Finished with her brushing, Rin slid towards his sitting body, sliding closer, with her black hair falling over the collar of his kimono. Over her smooth knees, which had since paled now that the days had grown shorter. "I haven't brushed your hair before."</p>
<p>Staring intently still: "Never," he said low.</p>
<p>"It would be intimate, wouldn't it?" Rin asked—while she caressed the fall of his hair. It was cool to the touch as she lifted the heavy silk away from his neck. "Yes?"</p>
<p>"Nothing," he murmured. "Go on."</p>
<p>"In a minute."</p>
<p>Climbing onto her knees, lingering beside him by degrees.</p>
<p>Sesshomaru leaned into her, his face against her chest. The soft sweet touch of her hand was on his cheek then, her fingertips at the shell of his ear.</p>
<p>"These are my favorite." Rin sighed dreamily. "And on your wrists. Your markings are so beautiful to me."</p>
<p>He tilted his head so she could fondle him better. "I have others," he said.</p>
<p>Rin stilled her hand.</p>
<p>The tone in his voice was a tantalizing invitation to wonder just where those <em>others </em>were.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>You guys are too much. And now I'm starting to get a little nervous, because this story is getting more attention than I ever thought it would. Thank you so much for reading, and your feedback.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0220"><h2>220. Moving Shadows</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The fire's glow threw their shadows against the surrounding trees, with the smaller of the two on the move.</p><p>Rin made one last pause before sitting in front of him. She looked down his torso in a daze of wonder. His armor and swords were piled neatly beside him, and the ivory hanjuban covering his chest was thin enough to show through the sketching of pectoral muscles.</p><p>"Weren't you going to brush me?" His eyes were burning and bold, glancing up from the hairbrush now beside her on the ground.</p><p>"I want to ask…"</p><p>"Ask," he said.</p><p>In the background, Ake let out a small whinny. Rin turned away from her horse and back to Sesshomaru. Her heart was already thumping. "No," she mustered up, "I've said the wrong thing."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hanjuban - an undergarment worn under the kimono.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0221"><h2>221. Courage</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A habit of Rin's was lowering her head demurely before saying some simple little thing. Her hand brushed at the strands falling over her face, grazing the hair but not sweeping back to reveal her eyes completely. "I want…"</p><p>"Courage, Rin. Let me hear it."</p><p>Her nervousness seemed to recede a little. "I want you to sit there."</p><p>"Yes," he said, most agreeable. "Go on."</p><p>Now Rin steeled her nerves. "With your hands down at your sides."</p><p>"Hn?" Sesshomaru leaned back against the trunk of the pine tree. "Why," he wondered. "Can't I touch you?"</p><p>Rin shook her head. "It makes me weak," she admitted, "and I want to see everything I felt that time ago in the dark." Wood was thrown on the fire, and when she turned around to him her brows rose. "Oh," she said. "What face is that? Do you want to touch me?"</p><p>"<em>Constantly." </em></p><p>"Then why haven't you been?"</p><p>"Because 'slow' you told me. 'Kiss me more'—that's you."</p><p>Rin considered him for a moment, before climbing onto a tense and tortured lap, where then she considered him some more—and the ever-increasing rise and fall of his chest. "Slow means not at all?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0222"><h2>222. Wriggle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin often helped herself to his hard lap, and at various angles. Sometimes on the muscles above either knee, or both. Other times crushing her behind directly onto his groin.</p><p>This time it was the latter and more.</p><p>She straddled him.</p><p>As some wild animal bellowed in the distance, Rin settled down with her crotch to his, resettled and wriggled some more, until arranging the long flowing sleeves of his kimono around his neck.</p><p>Sesshomaru relished in her weight, in her constant shifting and parting on and from his aching erection. "I'd like to taste," he said, "the inside of your mouth."</p><p>His voice could sound so soft yet so firm all at once.</p><p>It made Rin feel drowsy; that swooning pleasure clinching inside of her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0223"><h2>223. Princely Grace</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Their hearts pounded against each other.</p><p>Rin's open kiss was hot and tortuously slow. She experimented rather than letting him take control; holding his face, touching the sharp teeth with the tip of her tongue, sliding against his, even sucking on it.</p><p>While Sesshomaru submitted to all of this with princely grace, he struggled with the urge to go under and up the hem of his kimono she wore. He could go mad from her scant caress. Already his face betrayed his burning desire for her. Hairline cracks splintered down the thin veneer of his subdued expression, and his claws, gripped into fists, was full not with her but with his own fur.</p><p>Seeing this gave Rin new confidence, and she swelled with feminine pride. She was a petite thing, a slight girl, really. But a girl who pinned a demon to the bark of a tree and kept him there.</p>
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<a name="section0224"><h2>224. Unrequited</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin lifted her hair, letting his tongue lave at the scars he left under it.</p>
<p>Her hands were cold but her neck was hot, and as he continued to kiss her there, "An unrequited bond," she said. "What is it?" Of course, she knew the idea of these words, just not the intent.</p>
<p>"It means," Sesshomaru answered, pausing. Rin was squirming again and his pride feared the halting tone in his voice. "How cruelly you move against me while asking—" Then, after a few tight breaths, "I'll sink my teeth to the gums again, if you take me inside."</p>
<p>Rin swooped upon his crimsoning face with kisses, which he gratefully received. "But didn't I scorn you," she asked softly, "when I told you no?"</p>
<p>"Regardless if she will have me or not," he said, "I swore to Rin… This promise that I have never given another—"</p>
<p>One hand flew to his mouth, the other pressed to her heart, as if to still its pounding beat. Sometimes Sesshomaru spoke in circles, dancing around the matter instead of speaking plainly. She understood him completely, but if he kept talking like that she was sure to lose her nerve.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It's so sweet with Rin. She can actually think when he's not crawling all over her.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0225"><h2>225. Miserable Hands</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I'd like to see these uh, <em>other</em> markings."</p><p>Bold of her to say. But not just that.</p><p>Rin also wanted to explore his body like he once explored hers.</p><p>She fidgeted on his lap, now more than aware of the thick hardness wedged tightly underneath her. His hips gave a little upward push each time she moved, his thighs tensing then melting into the soft roundness of her behind.</p><p>Sesshomaru exhaled very slowly.</p><p>She was frustration, she was torture and desire.</p><p>Suddenly Rin gasped, because his palms had worked their way under her arms; and his thumbs were long enough to graze against the hardening buds pushing through the kimono.</p><p>"<em>Sesshomaru</em>," Rin whined, "you promised."</p><p>He kissed her deeply; passed his tongue into her mouth and suckled her bottom lip, before returning his miserable hands back to his sides.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0226"><h2>226. Dream Slow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru almost thought to argue with her. Dissent rose up in his throat, crowding at the back of his fangs. She didn't have to hesitate so much. But seldom did he need to learn the same lesson twice, so rather get in the way of his own intimacy with her, he decided to keep his mouth shut.</p><p>She reached for him with nervous hands, and slowly, the sash at his waist was pulled on.</p><p>Sesshomaru in aching silence, Rin with her soft, quick breaths.</p><p>He could hear her heart beating louder than his. The movement of her hands was magnified in his eyes—dream-slow, as in watching himself being undressed through a trance. But also sharply vigilant as she avoided his steady gaze, as she spread his hanjuban far apart, exposing his bare chest to the crisp, autumn air.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0227"><h2>227. Contour</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin flushed from the bridge of her nose to the tips of her ears.</p><p>Her hungry gaze swept his body.</p><p>His torso was lean and long, every inch of him sculpted muscle, without an ounce of extra flesh.</p><p>"<em>Oh</em>," Rin said.</p><p>Magenta contoured his waist beautifully, with the boldest lines arching across either hip but never quite reaching his middle. He was also completely hairless except for the sparse white hair trailing down his navel.</p><p>Actually, Rin wasn't sure if what she was looking at was really hair and not something closer to a velvet down.</p><p>The trail disappeared under the start of his trousers; and she was still holding onto his hanjuban with both hands as he waited indecently for what she'd do next.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0228"><h2>228. New Face</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her hair tickled his chest, it crept down his stomach, it pooled below his navel.</p><p>Dry leaves crunched under Rin's knees as she scooted down his lap. She needed more space to explore, and now that she could see what she would be touching, did not fight her burning curiosity.</p><p>Rin groped for and held the narrow of his waist. She couldn't feel the cold anymore focused entirely on him—and the straining bulge just released from underneath her, which she stared at for more than a few moments.</p><p>But something made her look up, and when she did she saw Sesshomaru smirking down at her hands, before panning up to meet her wide-open eyes.</p><p>Stunned, because she was positive she had never seen him look so amused before.</p><p>"Don't… Don't stare at me all the time." Rin was beyond the color red. And when in such a state of nervousness, tended to rush through her sentences, before emotion overtook and caused her words to burst out. "Your stare, Sesshomaru is sometimes, sometimes…"</p><p>He kept staring anyway. "Is what."</p><p>"I don't know," she said.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0229"><h2>229. Jut</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Go on," Sesshomaru urged Rin, almost daring her. "See where my hands are? Touch me at your own pace, I won't interfere. But do something soon," he went on, "before the heat coming from your eyes burns through the silk." He was teasing her, but this was more frustrating than he once imagined. Anticipation and the ache of desire were beginning to turn into despair.</p><p>Rin really wanted to see him naked. She understood there was little sense in continuing to hide this want behind her modesty.</p><p>—it's just Sesshomaru didn't expect her to tug at the drawstrings so suddenly, pulling over his hips until freeing his cock—which was rock-stiff and jutting out of a white background.</p><p>Rin learned it wasn't hair but fur, and that also, as her small hand sifted through it, long enough to catch between the webs of her fingers.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sesshomaru's dying of frustration and Rin decides she rather play in fur than firmly grasp it. Bless her heart. (If you can't tell, I'm having way too much fun with this).</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0230"><h2>230. Hollowed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Finally, after solving the mystery of his fur, Rin took him into her hand.</p><p>She fondled him; she wrapped it in her hesitant grip.</p><p>The shaft had a subtle, yet distinctive upward curve that, upon noticing, gave her a thrill so inciting it traveled directly down, skimming over aching nerves before settling at the bottom of her stomach. It was as though her body knew instinctively what this curve could better brush against deep inside.</p><p><em>"Rin, Rin,"</em> Sesshomaru said, almost crooning her name. "Can't you see I'm dying?"</p><p>It was clear she didn't have the faintest idea how to handle the thing properly—and Sesshomaru, now throbbing in her gentle grasp, wrapped his hand over her hollowed fist and began pumping, guiding her.</p><p>"Like this?" Rin asked when he let her take over.</p><p>She didn't need an answer.</p><p>Seeing pleasure creep into his eyes, glazing them over, answered her question.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0231"><h2>231. Whip</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When her arm grew tired, she switched to the dominant one.</p><p>Sesshomaru watched as she worked him from the tip to the base and back again, and all while trying to maintain a dignified reserve.</p><p>But it seemed Rin was determined to peel away this dignity—or rather stroke it—from him bit by bit, as if it were so many layers of an onion. She was pulling along the weeping organ with a steady rhythm; and the winding motion that brought the back of his head to the tree, wasn't something he had instructed her to do but the result of her experimenting.</p><p>Quite frankly, her wrist was like a whip.</p><p>The white strands caught in the tree's bark showed how much he moved from where he originally let his head rest. He lifted a leg every now and then, rustling the leaves underneath it. He was almost beside himself, unsure whether or not to focus on the movement of her hand or the large eyes admiring him for his abandon.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0232"><h2>232. Revered</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin didn't know exactly why, but seeing him this way, how his body reacted to her touch, was almost as pleasurable as when he touched her. She almost thought herself foolish for being so nervous with him, as she slid her free hand across his torso.</p><p>The muscles in his stomach drew tight and relaxed. She realized there was a correspondence between this tightening and the pumping of her wrist, and that, when she focused on the head and squeezed, winding her hand around the tip, she could also make him grimace.</p><p>He made no noise except for his pronounced breathing. But still Rin revered these reactions, in particular his face; because very seldom did he show her his teeth.</p><p>
  <em>Now look at him. </em>
</p><p>She watched him with less than secret enjoyment, recalling how embarrassed she had been with herself then, when he used his fingers and tongue on her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0233"><h2>233. Groan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By now Sesshomaru had started to murmur and sigh, unable to conceal that he was swiftly reaching the height of his passion.</p><p>"Yes?" Rin said.</p><p>"Faster," he hardly managed, "<em>fast</em>—"</p><p>Rin was rapt to his face.</p><p>There was something delightfully vulgar about what she was doing to him. It was humbling to see one so ethereal descending to what seemed so physical. He was shuddering underneath her with one drawn out groan after the other. The groan seemed to emanate within his throat, with more the tone of one imploring—because as he began pouring himself into her hand, to his anguish her first reaction was to stop before he could finish.</p><p>"No, don't stop."</p><p>Rin quickly took hold of him again. "I'm sorry!" she said.</p><p>She cleaned her hand when he was emptied and quiet, oblivious to the swelling at the base of what still throbbed. It was slight and hardly noticeable. Enough only to stretch her hand a little wider, as what just occurred was merely an incomplete act—or perversion—of mating with her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Just four chapters for now. I'm trying to get the next six chapters to play nice but they're not working with me right now. Still a little tore up over Episode 4 of Yashahime, BTW.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0234"><h2>234. Predatory</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Come here." Sesshomaru pulled on his trousers and covered himself. With the edge taken off his desire, his voice sounded calm, almost sedated.</p><p>Rin was standing to his right, looking down on him. He sat very still leering up at her, a cool breeze stirring his fringe and the fur which clung to his bare shoulder.</p><p>She paused for a moment.</p><p>The campfire was a faint glow surrounded by deep darkness, and looking at him from this angle, reflected in his eyes an unsettling gleam that was positively otherworldly. Unblinking. <em>Predatory.</em></p><p>Yet Rin moved dreamily towards this hooded gaze, and his long-reaching claws.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0235"><h2>235. Preserve</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru gathered her, still on her feet, by the waist and turned her around. He brought her down slowly, sitting her on the ground between long legs, then wrapping her in his arms.</p><p>The scent of her filled every sense. Her's was a delicate musk that lingered sweetly on the tongue long after tasting; a scent he'd love to preserve in the palm of his hand when away from her.</p><p>But he wouldn't go pawing at her just yet.</p><p>Sesshomaru kept his claws in the light as he went down her neck with his lips. He touched but didn't grope, didn't fondle everything all at once like before. But soft and gentle despite himself, despite hearing the little moan that stiffened him against her back and made him sigh.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0236"><h2>236. Guide</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The back of Rin's head fell to his chest, giving his lips better access to the hollow of her throat. She shivered in his arms. His tongue was hot, and she reached for him with one hand, bringing his eager mouth down to hers.</p><p>"Touch me," Rin said, her lips caressing at his as she spoke. "I want you to touch me."</p><p>"<em>Where</em>," he whispered deeply in her ear.</p><p>Still wearing his kimono, Rin opened the collar and exposed herself without an ounce of self-consciousness. She took him by his claws, guiding them over her satin-soft skin, and up to her breasts. Clinging to him still as she felt the strength of his hands, his fingers spreading and curling as he cupped and squeezed; and all the while arching her back, pushing harder the aching heaviness of her breasts into his palms as the halting catch of their breaths alternated between them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0237"><h2>237. Left To Right</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin was alive in his claws.</p><p>She guided his hands all over; down over the quivering belly which concaved beneath his touch, to the soft muscles along the outside of her thighs.</p><p>Sesshomaru wondered, and hotly, as she writhed between his legs, if she might direct his hand under the hem of the kimono, where hers had disappeared more than a few times.</p><p>But then he found himself incapable of any thoughts, as she began to rub herself affectionately, and in a way that would always remain unforgettable.</p><p>As she flung her legs over his, with her thighs spread wide apart, she touched with two fingers and rubbed it some more, urging him all the while in a hoarse voice—one definitely not heard before until then. Never had he expected exhibitionism from her, and he watched even as she pled his name, as she caressed that tight knot of flesh, showing him what she preferred most was a left to right motion rather than one that circled around.</p><p>"Sesshomaru," she begged again. But he would only sigh and press his lips to her face, utterly bereft.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0238"><h2>238. Shameless</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Sesshomaru seemed content to only watch, Rin took his hand in her frustration, making him touch the moist lips beneath the dark hair.</p><p>Back from that dark and sweltery place in his mind, Sesshomaru folded his legs with her on top for leverage; to see the angle of what ached and hungered better, and the moisture which trickled down the inner curve of her thigh.</p><p>Rin was shameless.</p><p>She pressed down on the clawed hand rubbing her back and forth, lifted her hips and thrust upward, even if it meant interfering with his rhythm and her own pleasure.</p><p>"<em>Yes</em>," Sesshomaru hissed in her ear. He held her close to his chest with his other arm, shaping one breast with his free hand, relishing in the way she strained against him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The next chapter is rather uh... explicit.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0239"><h2>239. Stringing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru stroked his way down to her entrance.</p><p>But she moved too much.</p><p>A claw pricked her and she flinched.</p><p>"Please," Rin said. "It's okay. You didn't hurt me."</p><p>Still, his claws <em>were </em>a problem. He thought this as he turned his wrist palm up, and saw them wet and shining in the firelight.</p><p>Carefully, and with a sweeping caress, he gathered more of this wetness, and once collected, opened and closed, watching the way these glistening strings stretched across his long fingers.</p><p>Rin watched too. "What are you—" she tried to ask, but when his fingers disappeared inside of his mouth she shut hers. That was animal, what she just witnessed. And she looked away, so she didn't see the gesture he made with his jaw and teeth. She felt him shift however, and his other hand wrapping behind the small of her knee. Then she felt one finger dipping inside of her, claw-less, and moving in an upward motion that made her clench and arch with pleasure.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0240"><h2>240. Churn</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If Rin had a moan in her throat, Sesshomaru had another; and the two of them moaned into the other's mouth as they kissed.</p>
<p>This pleasure was new to her. Not like the flutter she was used to, but deeper and more spasmodic, pervading through her body to the ache of her breasts down to the heels of her feet.</p>
<p>Her poor hands were hopeless to reach what his could. What she attempted in those private moments alone in sweltering onsens with his stolen image; when she tried to rub against those quivering nooks to no avail, where inside he <em>churned </em>against so deliciously.</p>
<p>"Oh, I like this texture," he told her.</p>
<p>But Rin could only hear her own full-throated groaning in her ears.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It's been a while. Just took a little break. Here's six chapters. :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0241"><h2>241. Pale Flash</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was no discomfort with one finger, none with two either. But torture. Torture because she was too enticing for him not to taste twice. Because he would retract and spread her wetness around, as he caressed those swollen nerves of hers for only a moment before plunging back inside.</p><p>Rin pressed her back harder into his chest.</p><p>The tips of her breasts would always send a throb through her. So when he bent his head, taking one into his hot mouth, her hips rose mechanically from his lap. She gasped his name as he worked her with his tongue and fingers, each sensation intensifying the other so that it became one sanity shattering pre-orgasmic flutter.</p><p>Rin was watching and almost disbelieving the sight; the pale flash of his palm, the hazardous thumb-claw extended fully across and out of the way. And hearing the lewd sounds his fingers produced as they curled inside, buried only to the second knuckle and sometimes the third.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0242"><h2>242. Instruct</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>However, Sesshomaru would become lost in the excitement of pleasing Rin.</p><p>While caressing down the parallel muscles in her leg, though still wrapped around the limb to keep it prone, he strayed from the rhythm her quivering sex had set for him. She fidgeted against his chest and let out some frustrated little moan, which he misinterpreted.</p><p>Finally, Rin said, "No, not like that." It pricked at his ego a little bit. She wouldn't know it as she turned to look back at him for a moment. Not to scold but to kiss his panting mouth. "Like this," she instructed, and taking control of his hand.</p><p>Whatever slight Sesshomaru had felt was quickly forgotten. Rin was masturbating herself with his hand, showing exactly rather than telling how she wanted to be touched.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0243"><h2>243. Crisis</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"There!" Rin cried.</p><p>She had her head thrown back, her eyes squeezed shut.</p><p>Despite his grip upon her, Rin snatched her leg free from his hand. With both feet on the ground, she pushed against him, forcing his back to the tree as her orgasm rocked through her. She was clamping down on his fingers so hard Sesshomaru could only just move them, the crisis coming and going as he muttered hotly in her ear, and through it all never daring to deviate once from the lesson he was just taught.</p><p>When she finished convulsing on his lap, he held her tightly with his palm sealed to her, his fingers still inside.</p><p>But it was so hard for him sitting there with Rin sprawled out on his lap, both literally and figuratively.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0244"><h2>244. Boil</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru wouldn't ask her. Certainly could not be brought to <em>beg </em>her for it, as he always stood firmly on his dignity.</p><p>Rin could speak. If she wanted <em>more </em>she would have told him. He understood now that intimacy wasn't just a means to an end, but also gradual, with each new milestone bringing them closer together.</p><p>But the mournful ache of unsatisfied desire may eat him alive.</p><p>His heart thundered. His blood a rolling boil.</p><p>Rin provoked him in the most primal way. Her scent wafted under his nose, aggravating his most prominent sense. Thus demanding of him instant and endless checks and adjustments, his inner voice cautioning him with a warning that was part speech and more snarl to suppress these raw impulses.</p><p>Yet still so hard for him.</p><p>The voice in his head wasn't human.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0245"><h2>245. Madness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>But it was the look on her face when she turned to see him in the dying firelight. A look of teary-eyed bliss, of abandon and surrender, if not one of absolute trust that he knew with every fiber of his being was reserved for him alone.</p><p>The chief thing to do was to cherish and accept this moment for what it was, not for what he still desired. To have a poise of self as delicate as the tender flesh he held in his claws, yet at the same time rigid as steel.</p><p>Sesshomaru realized that he might have been holding her too tightly around the chest.</p><p>This was new for him.</p><p>Affection, genuine passionate affection, was his for the first time. There was a kind of guardianship with her before, a companionship, and there always will be. But this feeling was quite another. This was love. This was adoration and beyond. This was lust feverish and burning. This was madness beating with a single heart for a mortal girl.</p><p>"Why do you look away from me?" Rin reached to touch at the frayed markings across one cheek, then higher to smooth down the bristling silver fringe still standing on end. She hadn't flinched, didn't seem to care at all that the eyes staring back at her were red and more slit than pupil.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0246"><h2>246. Flicker</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin turned on his lap so that she faced him fully.</p><p>Even beside the fire, sitting so near that it cast one side of his face into shadow and the other in a soft glow, his eyes did not catch a flicker of light. His stare was a red void, unblinking; uncanny in its ability to give off its own gleam.</p><p>"You don't scare me," Rin said stroking his hair with more and more intensity, and each time with more caressing emphasis than the last. She gathered him in and kissed him hard and fervently, then softly and lovingly.</p><p>There was Sesshomaru and there was this one.</p><p>She adored them separately and she adored them together.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0247"><h2>247. Fifty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru inspired in Rin the very feelings he himself experienced. However, neither one had ever imagined being threatened with an intimacy as persuasive as this.</p><p>Rin embraced him still.</p><p>Gradually, his breathing became slower and calmer, the gold returning to his eyes.</p><p>"If I love you like this after one summer, how do you suppose I'll feel after fifty more?"</p><p>There was silence; a tight, frantic silence in which the wind waited, and the trees waited, and the nighttime creatures waited, hidden in the nooks and crevices of the forest.</p><p>Pain coming from him in secret. Dread.</p><p>Her words were sobering and echoed in fragments inside his ears.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0248"><h2>248. Long Lashes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her expression was so warm. Very pretty. Long lashes. Wetness on her lips from their last kiss.</p><p>Sesshomaru lowered his forehead to her shoulder, hiding his face against her neck. "Why say this to me—even if it is true." His voice was smothered and barely audible.</p><p>"There's plenty of time."</p><p>"You've told me this lie before," he said. "I'm weary of this lie."</p><p>Rin breathed the scent of his hair as his hands slid slowly up her back. She bent her head to kiss the pointed ear closest to her lips, then slipped his kimono over her shoulders, leaving it open so that only the round spread of her breasts were visible.</p><p>"Here," she said.</p><p>"Unnecessary."</p><p>But she enclosed him in the kimono to warm his body anyway.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0249"><h2>249. Mischief</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They held each other chest to chest as the stars above them shone bright, until Rin stretched and laid her head on his lap.</p><p>Sesshomaru willed his fur twice its length, long enough to cover her small hands and feet despite her clinging to it with arms and thighs. She sighed contently but did not settle.</p><p>"It'll be good, won't it? Romantic?"</p><p>"What would."</p><p>"<em>Romantic. </em>Pretty smells and soft lighting... <em>You know…</em>" Actually, Sesshomaru did not. He knew of the girlish mischief in her eyes, however. "That what makes you turn—"</p><p>He understood. And lifting a brow as Rin made claws of her fingers, baring up at him the most pathetic looking <em>fang-teeth</em> he had ever seen.</p><p>Was that supposed to be him, this silly caricature?</p><p>If so, very amusing, though he was not used to mockery.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0250"><h2>250. Play</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Now, Sesshomaru had never been one for humor, but one corner of his mouth did, in fact, twitch, and this crack in resolve did not go unnoticed by the smiling face he was presently staring down on. "You play," he said dryly. Then regarding her with another eye, "And—if I didn't know any better—<em>you tease.</em>"</p><p>Rin's laugh was high and bright. "Is that what you think?"</p><p>"It's alarming how badly you make me want."</p><p>Reaching for him to pull his face down to hers. The kiss was sweet. Its passion, however, was beginning to catch fire, so she let him go. "You didn't answer my question," she said.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0251"><h2>251. Sulky</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru let out a deep breath.</p>
<p>It seemed the question required some reflection on his part.</p>
<p>Finally, after more than a few moments, he said, "... I think."</p>
<p>Rin stirred a little. "You think? Why only that?" He was thinking again—much to her annoyance. Or avoiding the question, which he sometimes tended to do when unsure of what to say. But she'd get him to talk, she thought as she reached to touch at the great vein in his neck with one finger. "What if I bit you here?" she asked innocently. "What then?"</p>
<p>Sesshomaru's musings went abruptly quiet.</p>
<p>He cleared his throat. "That is to say, you'd attempt to mark me in the same manner I have done to you?"</p>
<p>"So you <em>are </em>listening." Her laugh made him feel sulky. That was cruel. "Why aren't you certain?"</p>
<p>She felt him shift. He was silent again but only for a moment this time. "Rin," he asked in a quiet tone, "what if I told you I don't know this thing myself, just how it works."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Some much needed soft moments between these two.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0252"><h2>252. Soar</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin's brows drew together, then lifted. It took a moment to realize what he meant, and now she was staring at him in shocked disbelief.</p><p>Sesshomaru had never lain with another before?</p><p>"No?" she asked.</p><p>"No," he answered.</p><p>Her heart rose—<em>soared</em>—with the knowledge.</p><p>Secretly, she had hoped. But she never would have guessed this, what with his bold hands and cunning tongue.</p><p>Perhaps the latter was instinct, she thought. Perhaps the instinct was the reason she had to push his voracious mouth away when the pleasure became too much. Revisiting that rainy night, all she knew was that she hated—<em>hated </em>the dark.</p><p>What Rin wouldn't give to appreciate the look on his face when her own boldness guided her lips to his for the first time.</p><p>She would forever regret not knowing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0253"><h2>253. Foreign</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was still sinking in.</p><p>Reflecting.</p><p>Things about that night were starting to make sense...</p><p>Why his hands, as they caressed and pet her, became progressively more rough; scratched her, marring her back, until the startling moment Rin felt herself snatched and bent into the position most obvious to a being like him.</p><p>Realizing.</p><p>More importantly, that night, when he begged for her forgiveness, it wasn't only for his enthusiasm, his misunderstanding hers.</p><p>He was asking her to forgive the very nature that caused the misunderstanding in the first place.</p><p>Rin couldn't help but wonder what it must be like for him. It must be so hard. Constantly <em>warred</em> upon by her and himself waging private war with his own nature. The nature was his as strongly as her humanity was hers. Indeed, in some respects, they were comparatively similar. But what was it like, really, for the one repressing his own inclinations in order to indulge a love language foreign to him but natural to her?</p><p>No wonder he didn't understand what she meant by '<em>romantic.' </em></p><p>To Sesshomaru, it probably didn't matter if they were here or there, indoors or outside, just so long as they were hot with <em>it</em>.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0254"><h2>254. Centuries</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The fire was neglected.</p>
<p>Rin wrapped her arms around his waist. It wouldn't be long before the gentle rise and fall of his chest lulled her to sleep.</p>
<p>"How old are you?" she asked him suddenly.</p>
<p>"Hard to say," he answered. "I stopped counting years ago."</p>
<p>"You mean to tell me you don't know?"</p>
<p>"There was a war then..." Sesshomaru tried to remember, his eyes narrowing in thought. "I'm certain I haven't reached my 5th century yet. At least four-hundred and ten—give or take a few decades."</p>
<p>"I see."</p>
<p>"You still have questions."</p>
<p>"I was wondering if you understood what I asked you earlier."</p>
<p>Movement. Rin watched him smooth the fold of his sleeve so that it hung perfectly from his wrist; creating order on the outside when inside his head there was little.</p>
<p>"Human things," he said after a while.</p>
<p>Rin breathed out a laugh. He sounded so bored. "I trouble you with it, don't I? Be honest."</p>
<p>His mind flashed in advance of his answer. "It frustrates me," he said, "and yet... it fascinates."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I don't know how old Sesshomaru is really. Just having fun with a headcanon.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0255"><h2>255. Sniffle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Days passed.</p><p>Jaken was still gone.</p><p>They moved through the trees, never straying far from the onsens Rin loved so much.</p><p>The unseasonably warm weather held, though in the evenings the air was cool.</p><p>Rin sniffled, her breath curling like smoke. Although she was dressed in multiple layers, the air cut through her kimonos and tabi-socks. She should ask Sesshomaru to take her inside somewhere but was too stubborn to ask it.</p><p>They were never this alone together before. It was as though the forest belonged only to them, as she played in his hair.</p><p>"What are you doing?" he asked</p><p>Sniffling again. "Plaiting it," she said. "I want to see—I want—hey! Keep still."</p><p>"Don't tie it."</p><p>"Why not?"</p><p>He almost told her why. But he shut his eyes and let her have her way.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0256"><h2>256. Cough</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It started with a cough, a pestering, dry hack that made her drink water. Rin would cover her mouth with her sleeve as she coughed, then sip some more.</p><p>A day later, her sleeve came away spattered with phlegm.</p><p>"It's just a cold," Rin told him.</p><p>But she was listless, her complexion all wrong. Pale was normal for her, yes. But with a rosy tint. This color was healthy on him but alarming on her.</p><p>The sight of her wasn't the worst of it. The scent coming from her was the cause of his creeping nausea. A smell so sweet and sick it sent down to the bottom of Sesshomaru's stomach the full weight of worry and dread.</p>
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<a name="section0257"><h2>257. Fits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She lost her appetite. Hardly nibbled her pickled radish and rice. Wouldn't touch the rabbit he caught and skinned for her.</p><p>Coughing all the time.</p><p>Her chest hurt, she said. Her muscles ached, everything aching and the medicinal tea she brewed didn't help.</p><p>She wanted to sleep.</p><p>Coughs began to wrack her. Strangling fits so severe it threw her head against his chest in the middle of the night, where she choked and gasped for breath; the seizing cough turning her blue and breaking her apart.</p><p>"Breathe," he urged her. "Please, take a breath."</p><p>Rin inhaled a little.</p><p>But feared gripped him. There was hardly any air in his lungs. He could smell the blood in her mouth and hear another fit on the verge.</p><p>Sesshomaru was on his feet that instant, scooping her into his arms in the same movement. But flight by normal means wouldn't be quick enough, not if he was to reduce a full day's trip to only an hour. So he cradled her tight to his chest, then transformed into the orb of light that enabled him to fly at full tilt.</p>
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<a name="section0258"><h2>258. Burst</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"No, don't throw it out," Inuyasha said, chewing with his mouth open.</p>
<p>"But it's so burnt."</p>
<p>"I like the crunchy fatty bits."</p>
<p>Kagome made a face and sat down. A small boar was caught that morning and brought to Kaede's to be roasted and shared.</p>
<p>They were on the floor, eating around the fire.</p>
<p>"A fine meal," Kaede remarked as Kagome served hot tea around.</p>
<p>"How's your arthritis tonight?"</p>
<p>"Tolerable," Kaede answered, sipping her tea. "Kagome, do you sense that?"</p>
<p>"Eh? Sense what—"</p>
<p>Sesshomaru burst in, forcing the door's cover in so suddenly that it hung by a single nail.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It's been a while. Here's 7 chapters.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0259"><h2>259. Twisting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The hut went quiet, the silence stretching as Sesshomaru stepped into the full glare of the fire. Rin was limp in his arms, her hair dull with sweat and sticking to her temple.</p><p>"Y-you?" Kagome said before anyone else. Then she gasped. "What happened?"</p><p>Sesshomaru's heart was twisting inside his chest. His face was numb. He could barely force sound past his tight throat. "Why is she so warm," he asked the room.</p><p>Kagome hurried over and placed her hand on Rin's forehead. She jerked back. "My god. She's burning up."</p><p>"We must break the fever," Kaede said. As she stood, she waved her arthritic hand at Inuyasha. "Nevermind me. Ice water—as quick as ye can."</p><p>Inuyasha was already brushing past Sesshomaru on his way out the door.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0260"><h2>260. Ginger</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin lay on a thick bedroll made of reed, with a cool cloth on her forehead. She moaned weakly in her fevered state, then stirred suddenly and immediately began to cough. Then she began to cry.</p><p>Sesshomaru watched her in anguish. His face was eerily still, his gold eyes pained.</p><p>Even breathing hurt her.</p><p>Kagome called it Pneumonia.</p><p>She explained this illness to Sesshomaru using words he thought were strange in his ears, but ultimately he understood it was a sickness much more severe than a cold.</p><p>Kaede prepared medicine on a boxwood table in one corner of the hut. On it were pouches of various herbs, ginger being the prominent ingredient.</p><p>Rin stopped coughing long enough to swallow the bitter syrup.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0261"><h2>261. Of Women</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The medicine soothed Rin's cough, but now she was wracked by violent shivers. However, as distressing as this was for Sesshomaru to witness, Kaede assured him that this was a good sign.</p><p>"Um…" Kagome's voice trailed off.</p><p>"Right," Inuyasha said. She didn't need to say it. "Yell if you need anything."</p><p>He lifted the door cover on his way out.</p><p>But Sesshomaru remained.</p><p>Kagome then turned to Kaede. Together they exchanged a long look in a silent language of women from which Sesshomaru was hopelessly excluded. They succeeded in bringing down Rin's fever and now needed to help her change into a dry kimono.</p><p>"We'll need a few," Kagome told him, hesitant to make eye contact.</p><p>After all, it would be completely improper for Sesshomaru to see Rin undressed.</p><p>They didn't know he had already seen everything. Or maybe they did and this was a front. Humans like to pretend intimacy should be shrouded in secrecy for some reason. Either way, he didn't wish to scandalize Rin, or her family, so he turned towards the door.</p>
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<a name="section0262"><h2>262. Rumors</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The night was clear and cold. The villagers were all in their little huts, tucked away. Everything still except a barking dog in the faraway distance.</p><p>Sesshomaru was sitting on Kaede's roof, loathing himself for making Rin think she needed to suffer as meekly as she could, when he heard movement down below.</p><p>Inuyasha leapt onto the roof with a single effortless bound. "I heard rumors," he said as he sat on the support beam beside his brother. Not too close.</p><p>"Don't care for rumors."</p><p>Inuyasha was unfazed. He picked at his ear, then flicked the dirt from his claw. "They say you're distracted these days, that you ain't patrollin' like you used to."</p><p>"<em>Hmph</em>. So they say."</p><p>"A lot of youkai say it though."</p>
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<a name="section0263"><h2>263. Idiot</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Now, what would a hanyou—</em>
</p><p>Actually, no. Sesshomaru didn't want to complete that thought for some inexplicable reason. He felt it necessary to forget that slur and did not wish to return to it. "You should be completely ignorant of my society," he said instead—and a little crossly. "It is your natural state of being, after all."</p><p>This was not good. If Inuyasha was aware of what was going on, how long until a dangerous youkai flies down and tells him to go back to his tether and his human master? Or in his case, his mistress—<em>his lover.</em></p><p>Suddenly, Inuyasha stood. He walked along the roof's beam for a moment or two and stopped. Then he turned right back, approaching slowly and deliberately upon his brother. "You're a fuckin' idiot," he said with his fangs, "you know that right?"</p><p>Sesshomaru didn't speak.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0264"><h2>264. Go Off</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bare trees shivered in a cold wind.</p><p>White hair and red sleeves falling in long, graceful folds.</p><p>They stared at each other with a fixing-gaze for a while, before Inuyasha continued giving him a piece of his mind. "You can't keep them outside all the time. They ain't like us. They get weak—they catch things."</p><p>Sesshomaru didn't speak.</p><p>"She'll lie before becoming a burden. And they all <em>lie</em>," Inuyasha said with a sneer. "They never want you worrying about them. So you know Rin'll be the last to complain. She looks at a bastard like you and sees stars fallin' on his head. <em>Keh!</em> Did I mention you're an idiot?"</p><p>Sesshomaru didn't speak.</p><p>"You're lucky Kagome and the old bat in there are some of the best goddamn herbalists around. Because if you had taken her anywhere else—"</p><p>A pause. Hesitation.</p><p>Inuyasha smelled blood.</p><p>Sesshomaru must be clenching his fists under his sleeves.</p><p>Inuyasha flattened his ears against his hair and sighed.</p><p>His brother really was just an idiot.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0265"><h2>265. Suspect</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Inuyasha heard whispering from inside Kaede's house. They were whispering of the scratches on Rin's body, of the marks on her neck, and what could be the reason for them.</p><p>Inuyasha's eyes slowly began to widen, his mouth parting. "<em>Gods</em>," he muttered, suddenly wishing he were born deaf. He had an idea who was responsible for the scratches, and was about to jump off the roof with this uncomfortable hunch when the primary suspect finally spoke up.</p><p>"The horse," Sesshomaru said.</p><p>Inuyasha didn't look back at his brother but he did stop. The tone in his voice was so foreign to him. It didn't sound haughty or contemptful—this was the voice of a stranger. "Yeah, well it ain't a dragon. But she did start talkin' again after I gave him to her."</p><p>Guilt was rising again, boiling over. Rin never told Sessshomaru that. "I will not leave this roof."</p><p>"Figures." But Inuyasha understood. "Alright. So where'd you leave him?"</p>
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<a name="section0266"><h2>266. Gratitude</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shortly after Inuyasha had rushed off in a rustle of robes, Kagome called Sesshomaru back inside.</p><p>"Rin will be fine," she said upon his entering.</p><p>Hearing these words, Sesshomaru experienced a profound, undeniable relief.</p><p>"Aye," Kaede added, turning from where Rin lay beside the fire, "all she needs now is rest and plenty to drink."</p><p>"Miko…"</p><p>So much in one word. Gratitude. Acknowledgment. Had his respect been visible to the eye, it would have been contrary to how both miko perceived him.</p><p>"If only the circumstances behind this visit were different…" Kaede was seated on a mat and seemed to be staring at the tea leaves in her cup. "In any case, we enjoy having her."</p><p>"As do I."</p><p>The suddenness, if not the utter unreserve of his easy confession, stunned Kagome but not Kaede. She simply sipped her tea as Sesshomaru walked over to Rin.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0267"><h2>267. Mantra</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Standing over her. Staring.</p><p>Rin was warm under a heavy blanket, a simple linen kimono serving as her pillow.</p><p>He listened to her breathing; watched breath lift her chest for a long, long while.</p><p>Before Sesshomaru was aware of it, he sank onto his knees and lowered his head.</p><p>He felt guilt over every other emotion. She still had that sick complexion about her, with only the faintest trace of color under her eyes and around her nose. But she was also radiant, and she was <em>his</em>. This was his mantra, which he repeated like a chant in his head. With all his power and passion, he told her silently that he was sorry, and that she was as lovely as the vision he always kept of her in his private thoughts.</p><p>His last <em>sorry</em> was said out loud.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0268"><h2>268. Veranda</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It wasn't supposed to be this way.</p><p>He had listened. Heeded his mother's advice. Sent Jaken away to oversee the construction of a brand new home for Rin. Close enough to her family that she would need less than a day on horseback to visit them. Far enough to ensure the quiet privacy he was accustomed to.</p><p>He hadn't breathed a word to her about it. He wanted to surprise her with it, to lead her onto the veranda for the first time, where he hoped she'd sun herself each morning, weather permitting, before choosing whether or not to ride off in search of adventure.</p><p>He imagined it for weeks, dreamt of it. Of bare feet sounding lightly on floorboards that didn't creak, of her hesitating outside his bedchamber, before finding her nerve and walking in. She'd close the hand-painted shoji screen, and once inside with him, see that all which leapt to her eyes were places to lie down; the oil lamp flickering in one corner, their shadows crouching in another, as they shared each other's scent.</p>
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<a name="section0269"><h2>269. Most Loyal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The hut was dark and quiet.</p><p>Kagome turned on the futon she shared with Kaede.</p><p>Sesshomaru hadn't moved. He was still on his knees beside Rin, and gazing intently on her when she suddenly awoke. She looked at him for a moment, and then shut her eyes as she reached out for him. But her strength left her. Lifting her arm required effort, and now she was opening and closing her hand against the blanket in a weak kind of way.</p><p>He lifted her hand for her.</p><p>"Ses...shomaru…"</p><p>"Yes," he whispered.</p><p>"... stay."</p><p>"Yes," he whispered again—automatically.</p><p>It seemed a rolled-up kimono made for an awful pillow. Soft sounds as he moved her gently and replaced it with his fur. He stroked her face, let his claws slide into her hair, then finally sat down for the night.</p><p>But there were slight movements.</p><p>Someone was pretending to be asleep and doing a bad job at it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Happy New Year! Hope you enjoyed the soft chapters.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0270"><h2>270. Gale</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A gale tore through the forest, a gallop streaming in full stride until catching the scent it had been searching for.</p><p>The demon came to an abrupt halt and circled around. He sniffed the ground deeply and circled again. His face had been mangled once, showing evidence of bite wounds on his muzzle, so he couldn't smell as keenly as he should. Even the white ears were torn, with one ripped and the other missing completely.</p><p>Yet he was imposing in the darkness of dawn; he was robust and bold. An Inuyoukai of immense size. One who fought by claw and fang, without steel, with most of his power in the bones, muscles and skull.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0271"><h2>271. Cur</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The demon threw off that form, opting to walk on two legs instead of four.</p><p>Caught in the bark were tufts of white fur. On the ground, a ball of human hair gathered and discarded as though pulled from a brush. There was also horsehair.</p><p>It must be a curse, he thought darkly then. A sickness passed down through the bloodline, that family's taste for humans. But this was a fleeting thought. Upon closer inspection, he was absolutely sure this dog was the one.</p><p>The fur belonged to the one who left his brother out in the open to feed his maggots in a most undignified way.</p><p>"<em>Cur-dog."</em></p><p>He damned Sesshomaru, and the sires and bitches before him, and all of his seed to be born after him down to the farthest descendant.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0272"><h2>272. Butcher</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>This Inuyoukai with his scarred face, who flew all the way from the mainland in order to seek his revenge, had always been cruel in killing.</p><p>For Sesshomaru he vowed vaster cruelties.</p><p>For his slain brother he would become a butcher, cut steaks from Sesshomaru, drench his muzzle to the eyes with blood, as he ripped out his hot heart.</p><p>—if he could hunt him down, that is.</p><p>Looking around, it was clear Sesshomaru had taken to the skies. And if he preferred the human form then tracking him by scent, let alone his aura, would too prove to be difficult.</p><p>No matter.</p><p>The north was once his brother's and the elder would reclaim it for himself. It shouldn't have happened in the first place. Sesshomaru is a young Lord on the rise, unlike his sire when he died.</p><p>Having seen enough, the demon transformed into his true self. He raised his head and let loose a sound he couldn't contain, a terrible, primitive cry that was all excitement and hate.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0273"><h2>273. Cryptic</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru was agitated.</p><p>Soft sleeping sounds filled the hut as he experienced a shudder. A subtle shiver in his aura lost entirely on the sleeping miko, but to keener beings—were they around—a clear accession of demonic presence.</p><p>Rin moaned in her sleep, and he left his fur to her as he slipped out into the blue light of dawn.</p><p>He stood in the silent cold, feeling something on the edge of his senses. Not by the main five alone, but by some cryptic and remoter sense; like a sneeze that wouldn't come.</p><p>He stared in the direction from which he came with Rin, the same direction Inuyasha flew towards on the firecat's back to fetch her horse, and narrowed his eyes.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0274"><h2>274. Torn Between</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a demon. That Sesshomaru knew. But it was also far away.</p>
<p>However, pride and benevolence came from separate places inside of Sesshomaru's heart.</p>
<p>In his mind, <em>he </em>was the threat. He was the danger even those among his kind cleared paths for.</p>
<p>But he was torn.</p>
<p>Caught between two instincts, there wasn't a thing in the world that could compel him to leave Rin's side right now. Their bond had tightened into a grip, and not even his suspicion of a great presence running amok in the heart of his territory could pry himself away from her.</p>
<p>One thing was for certain. If whoever it was he sensed was to come too near, it would be greeted with acid and gleaming steel.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A few things. Sorry updates have been slow lately. I've been losing my mind over SESSRIN BECOMING CANON. Holy crap, it actually happened!</p>
<p>Also, giving careful thought on how to lead into the third act of this story. The rival searching for Sesshomaru is an OC, so I wanted to be very, very careful with that. </p>
<p>I also promise that I read every single review, even though I haven't been replying to them lately. It's a little overwhelming at times, but as I've said, I read EACH ONE, and more than a few times. So thank you so much for taking the time to leave kudos and review. &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0275"><h2>275. Relation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was well into the afternoon when Inuyasha hopped off Kirara's back. He stood barefoot on the cold ground, his nose raised and twitching.</p><p>Charred wood. Rin, that silky <em>prick</em>, and—</p><p>"That horse is around here somewhere."</p><p>Kirara made herself small and hitched a ride on Inuyasha's shoulder. He walked until he found a burnt-out campfire, where his brother's scent was strongest along with Rin's. But something wasn't right here. There was another smell. A stranger that was familiar by virtue of some distant relation but otherwise unknown.</p><p>
  <em>A dog demon? </em>
</p><p>He was sure of it.</p><p>But then, suddenly, a rattling shriek in the distance.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0276"><h2>276. Cicada</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Now the smell of blood hit Inuyasha.</p><p>Faster and faster he leapt through the forest. The sound was coming from an opening just ahead, the curtain of trees falling away and breaking into a clearing.</p><p>He came to an abrupt halt.</p><p>In a cold, sunlit field lay Rin's horse in a dark pool of blood.</p><p>"<em>Damn." </em></p><p>Inuyasha pulled Tetsusaiga from his waist.</p><p>Ake lifted his head as he approached, hind-limbs dead while struggling to rise with the front. The poor wretch was like a cicada half-smashed into the ground, but insects didn't scream. He was Rin's beloved, suffering horse, still fighting to stand until pierced through the heart.</p>
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<a name="section0277"><h2>277. Chewed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>That night, when Inuyasha returned to the village, he saw Sesshomaru floating above the great torii arch. He was furless and appeared to be on high alert. He drifted down and immediately Inuyasha relayed what he learned. "It was that demon," he said. "A dog—chewed Ake from the hinds up. So I had no choice in the end but to put him out of his misery."</p><p>Sesshomaru didn't react at first. He turned from him, and Inuyasha was unsure whether he meant to close the matter or leave it open, or open another. "I saw people too," he went on, "but—"</p><p>"The humans don't matter," his brother finally said. "It's the youkai I'll fly towards and slay in passing."</p>
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<a name="section0278"><h2>278. Impending Grief</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The width of Sesshomaru's pupils was now razor-thin. There was a vacancy where cool rationale had been. No brain. Only dark thoughts occupying every corner of his mind.</p><p>The heat flowing through him was even more on account of Rin than the enemy he made himself. If a demon that large is to eat a horse, it should swallow it whole. This one was spiteful, intending for them to return and for Rin to find her horse half-consumed and barely alive. He would never understand truly why she loved it so—and if he thought twice, why she loved him for that matter, but she did.</p><p>Her impending grief was enough to eat him alive.</p>
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<a name="section0279"><h2>279. Gentle Lie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I want to help."</p><p>And in the very act of Inuyasha's offering, Sesshomaru gave a glimpse of his most prominent trait—<em>pride</em>. "Why not draw your sword now," he said. "Why not stab it through my chest and turn it?" He looked directly at him. "<em>He is my prey.</em>"</p><p>This prickled Inuyasha. He felt burnt up with the raw power Sesshomaru had over him and his knowledge of it. So this demon was as capable as his brother. He wasn't so weak.</p><p>But then another thought came to him and unfurled his brows.</p><p>Perhaps this was Sesshomaru's way of keeping him from harm.</p><p>"Whatever," Inuyasha bit out. He started for his hut, talking as he walked and without looking back. "Just make sure you lie to Rin."</p><p>"Lie?"</p><p>"Yeah, lie. Tell her Ake died quickly. She doesn't need to know how long he suffered."</p><p>Sesshomaru would heed his brother's advice.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Poor Rin. She's going to be so heartbroken when she finds out what happened.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0280"><h2>280. Bright Eyed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin slept the sickness off over the course of several days. She was left mostly undisturbed, waking only to sip broth and to relieve herself. So it was no surprise on the fourth day she woke up hungry enough to eat two whole trout with three servings of rice.</p><p>Sango and Kagome had joined her for breakfast since Kaede was out assisting a village woman with her birth. Rin didn't know where Sesshomaru was, but as she stood and stretched she was sure he would show himself soon enough.</p><p>She changed into her most favorite kimono. The worst was assuredly behind her now; her eyes were bright and she only coughed a few times to clear her throat.</p><p>"What a beautiful kimono," Sango remarked.</p><p>"Here," Kagome offered, "let me help wrap your waist."</p><p>Rin smiled. "Thank you."</p><p>"So," Sango started to say, "Kagome tells me you and Lord Sesshomaru are quite close these days. Is this true?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0281"><h2>281. Gossip</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin honestly didn't know where to start. Images of her summer spent with Sesshomaru played in her mind, and in the end, all she could muster was, "Very close."</p><p>"Oh," Sango said. "She's blushing."</p><p>"She's in love." Kagome clasped her hands together and sighed. "You should have seen the way he touched her that night. He was so tender with her."</p><p>"It's almost hard to believe his heart actually beats."</p><p>"Sesshomaru is very affectionate," Rin insisted as Kagome began brushing her hair.</p><p>"So you've kissed?"</p><p>"Kagome!"</p><p>"What?" she said. "You were thinking it too."</p><p>Rin giggled, hushing them both. "Well, I don't think he would have if I didn't first—"</p><p>"First!" Kagome stopped brushing. She almost yanked Rin around she was so shocked. "You kissed <em>him</em>?"</p><p>"Oh, I can't say," Rin answered with a knowing little smile. "I've already said too much." But this was a lie, because surely as they leaned towards her with pursed lips, she was leaning towards them, her voice falling to a confidential, low whisper…</p>
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<a name="section0282"><h2>282. Fried Egg</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin didn't tell it all. Certainly not every sweltering detail of their intimacy. But just enough to drop Sango's jaw, as Kagome gasped behind her hand.</p><p>"Did I say something wrong?"</p><p>"You didn't, Rin. It's just… Who knew Sesshomaru was so passionate?"</p><p>"Mm," Sango mumbled, "and <em>generous</em>."</p><p>Kagome was trying her damndest not to laugh. "Well, you know what they say about silent types."</p><p>"I suppose he has to use his mouth for something since he doesn't use it to talk."</p><p>And after sharing a snicker with Sango, Kagome noticed Rin's rising color. "Oh, Rin. If you turn any redder I'll be able to fry an egg on your head. Don't be embarrassed. It's nothing we haven't heard before."</p><p>"Or done." Sango moved over to Rin and pulled her hands down from her face. "We're sorry. It's Inuyasha's brother—we couldn't help ourselves."</p><p>"I know," Rin said. "I do have questions though. A few for you, Kagome."</p><p>"I'll do my best."</p><p>Rin hesitated for a moment. She looked between them, took a big, deep breath, and asked, "Does Inuyasha like to bite you too?"</p><p>Sango stood suddenly. "I'll brew more tea."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0283"><h2>283. Saddlebag</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>So much talk.</p><p>After answering her questions the best they could, and after offering advice that would be put to good use later, Sango hugged Rin and left.</p><p>Kagome stayed behind to help clean up. She and Rin were in the middle of gathering the dishes when Sesshomaru lifted the door cover and walked in with something brown in the crook of one arm.</p><p>"Sesshomaru," Rin said brightly. "I feel so much better today—" His expression wiped the smile from her face. "What's going on? Why are you holding my saddlebag?"</p><p>He turned to Kagome. "Leave us," he told her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0284"><h2>284. Despair</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru was so succinct and to the point, Rin's grief needed a moment to catch up with her shock. It caught up with her when he handed her the saddlebag. She searched through it, not realizing it as she did. Inside were some of her most cherished possessions; the jade brush, the daggers she seldom used outside of cutting meat <em>he </em>hunted and killed for her.</p><p>Rin looked up from the floor, her mouth trembling.</p><p>Ake suffered a lonely death because of her, and Rin despaired. It was her stubbornness, she thought. Her refusal to ask Sesshomaru for shelter and her delusional desire to live as demons lived that killed him.</p><p>"It's not your fault."</p><p>Rin wept bitterly, and as she wept she found herself in his arms suddenly. He didn't say another thing—he wasn't sure what. But somehow that was alright for her, as he held the back of her head and let her cry.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This was a sad chapter. But I certainly enjoyed Sango, Rin, and Kagome together. I wonder what kind of advice they gave Rin...</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0285"><h2>285. Soul</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alone on the floor.</p><p>For a long time Sesshomaru held Rin, saying nothing. When she was quiet, she pulled away and gazed up at him. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. She lowered her head, then looked at him again, this time with the touch of a question in her eyes.</p><p>Sesshomaru couldn't bear this. He saw the swelling tears and couldn't bear telling her raising the dead was a <em>trick </em>reserved only for humans and youkai. And that without a soul, there is simply nothing to rise.</p><p>He closed his eyes—a long blink.</p><p>Breath shuddered in and out of Rin, and she burst into tears. Her poor face just crumpled. She leaned towards him, crying against his neck. He felt her hot tears wetting his throat, but could not move. He remained motionless in that moment with her, his heart flaring hot, as her body drooped into grief.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0286"><h2>286. Like Him</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Was it wolves?" Rin asked when her tears stopped.</p><p>"No. Youkai."</p><p>"A demon like you?" she said, faltering.</p><p>"... like me." He answered with a perfectly impassive face, but the word cost him bitterly. Not because it wasn't true, but because it was his fault.</p><p>He heard her swallowing. Her throat was dry after crying so much. She stood from his lap and came back with a cup, this time choosing to sit in front of him rather than on him. There was a helpless silence before she spoke again. "Ake wasn't killed by chance," she said, "was he."</p><p>Sesshomaru turned his face aside.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0287"><h2>287. Slow Tear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The truth was in his silence.</p><p>Rin squeezed her eyes so that the last slow tear could fall. Then she opened them, and as she did her face contorted suddenly, as she slammed the cup on the floor so hard it cracked. "I just don't know how to feel," she said. "I'm upset. I'm angry. And these horrible, ugly thoughts in my head… There's two voices I hear—both hoping for different things."</p><p>"Which is loudest."</p><p>Rin didn't answer right away. In fact, she finished her water and let Sesshomaru wait a while.</p><p>Village sounds from outside the door. Indistinct voices. The scrape of a heavy cart dragging on the ground.</p><p>"I know you already decided to kill him," she finally said, "that Lord." She was stroking one end of his fur, which she had been petting steadily for a minute now. It seemed to console her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't hope for such things."</p><p>Yet in her eyes was a dark intimacy for him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0288"><h2>288. Slaughterer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru didn't know what to think of it at first. He glowered at her through silver strands. The look didn't seem right on her face. But make no mistake, the slaughterer in him knew such a look. Just as it knew grief could show as anger today and as melancholy tomorrow.</p><p>"I said they were ugly thoughts. But I can't cry anymore and it's the only one left."</p><p>She was staring at the floor when he started to talk.</p><p>"You say things I want to hear, yet you apologize for it."</p><p>Stirring a little, but still angry. "I don't know how to answer that," she said.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0289"><h2>289. Common Rage</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru didn't expect her to be able to put it in words. But so long as they shared a common rage, that's what mattered most. "I do not prefer benevolence today or tomorrow."</p><p>Rin considered him for a moment. He was doing it again. Hardly blinking, as if fixated on something unseen in the corner across the hut. Stillness so inhuman she almost flinched when his head turned to her. "No," she said. "I don't suppose you wouldn't."</p><p>"My instincts are old," he thought to explain, because she won't be angry forever. "If they are <em>ugly</em>, that is because they were necessary to me."</p><p>And it was then Rin realized he never had to learn to hold his own kind, or any demon in contempt. It came naturally. Perhaps when he was very young. "Am I in danger?" she asked suddenly.</p><p>"You will be."</p><p>"Then I'll be praying for your victory."</p><p>Truly, one of the best things he had ever heard from her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This was pretty challenging to edit. Because when I think of Rin, I don't see her as vengeful. But in this situation, after finding out her horse was killed just to spite her (and Sesshomaru), it seemed like a natural reaction.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0290"><h2>290. Tastes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Days passed with hardly any tears.</p><p>Understandably, Rin was still a little dull in spirits, if not just plain low-spirited. But she was also consoled by friends and family, which to Sesshomaru was a relief. He noticed humans offered each other comforts he could not. At least, not very well.</p><p>One evening, Sesshomaru was offered a bowl of meat and rice.</p><p>He politely declined. But not before turning his head aside.</p><p>"Does he eat?" Kaede asked Rin as though he couldn't speak.</p><p>This made her smile. She wondered the same thing once. "He does," she said.</p><p>Rin told her—as Sesshomaru got up and walked out into the night—that what he ate was generally available in nature. He was merely set in his tastes because those he formed were set very early, that's all.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0291"><h2>291. First Snow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Actually, Sesshomaru was hungry.</p><p>He wandered through a skeleton forest for some distance, then decided to sit on a boulder. Still as stone, he waited patiently beside a snow hare's borrow until one emerged. He seized the unlucky creature, breaking its neck in the same swift motion.</p><p>The sky was darkening. The moon disappeared behind the clouds.</p><p>A freezing wind gusted, snapping branches and tearing needles free from the pines, pricking them at his brow and face. A flake of snow, and then another. But he ignored the snow falling on him, as he pulled the hare's flesh from its steaming hide.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0292"><h2>292. Slippery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A demon in a quiet storm, in a dark forest. Chewing.</p><p>Sesshomaru tried to think but his thoughts were too slippery.</p><p>'<em>You jump ahead of your own greatness,' </em>said his mother's disembodied voice, '<em>by centuries.' </em></p><p>Hating this. He hated the words and the smuggery in her eyes when she had said it.</p><p>And yet he anticipated some terrible, impending thing.</p><p>The cold air against his gums made him realize he was clenching his jaw. Blood surged as his heart throbbed; and it spread throughout, rushing faster and faster, hotter and hotter until he was just the anticipation sitting beside a half-eaten hare.</p><p>His vengeance will be cruel and certain.</p><p>The blood coursing through his veins was arrogant and had always kept him well beyond the reach of tragic fates more suited for the lesser sort. He had cut down and stood over all manner of demon-kind, as his blood was also fiercely belligerent and murderous.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0293"><h2>293. Gold Eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was warm inside Kaede's, dimly lit by the fire's glowing embers.</p><p>Rin turned in her sleep. She cracked one eye open, unwilling to stir fully into wakefulness—only to see gold eyes by the door.</p><p>Covers rustled as she sat up.</p><p>"Sesshomaru," she said, barely a whisper.</p><p>His eyes seemed made of light. She followed them as they moved towards her, watching as he strode silently across the floorboards. He held his swords so they wouldn't rattle, and once before her, sat down on the edge of the futon.</p><p>Rin reached for him, touching his face. "Oh," she breathed. It was one of those inexplicable demon things. He had been outside in the freezing cold for hours, yet his face was warm and his clothes were dry.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0294"><h2>294. Soft-Footed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His hair, however, was cold to the touch. Like icy silk. She pushed it aside so that she could see his pointed ear. Her fingers scratched him for a moment or two, his own wrapping around her wrist to keep her there. She was so delicate in his grasp, so soft and fine-boned. He may have sighed as she traced one brow with her thumb, as his eyes slowly began to close.</p><p>"I wish to show you something," he whispered.</p><p>"Before you do, shall I have a screen placed between us?"</p><p>Both turned around suddenly and caught Kaede watching them. Her tired eyes seemed to narrow when they met Sesshomaru's, and he was trapped by her judging stare when it didn't make any sense. Not that he intended anything there with Rin on the floor that night.</p><p>It's just, he was sure he had been soft-footed, if not entirely silent.</p><p>In any case, he'd tell her in the morning, when Jaken would return after doing one more thing for him. Perhaps the most important.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hmm...</p><p>How much do you think Sesshomaru's arrogance will cost him?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0295"><h2>295. Elusive</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For hours Jaken flew on A-un's back, shivering in the dark morning through freezing winds and clinging snow. But the cold didn't matter. The weather, terrible as it was, merely dismayed but did not daunt. When his Lord demanded, he obeyed. For behind any demand of Sesshomaru's was the threat of bodily harm. Harm that would surely hurt, harm that could express itself in twitching claws or in flying rocks.</p><p>A low groan rumbled underneath Jaken, full-throated and miserable. It was A-un, and the sound came from the left head. The right head shared similar feelings but preferred snorting to crying. "Do not complain!" he scolded—at which the left head groaned again.</p><p>Jaken had successfully completed his task. The master's house was built—and what a fine house it was. Not quite a palace but grand in its own right.</p><p>But most importantly that house, above all else, was an <em>elusive </em>one. Not easily found and when found not easily seen. Like the Lady mother's whose palace almost seemed to melt into the clouds, so too did this house blend into the forest.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0296"><h2>296. Choice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By this time, the gray morning light was seeping through Kaede's door.</p><p>Leave or stay.</p><p>Neither had to be permanent, but still, the choice was Rin's to decide.</p><p>Sesshomaru chose his words carefully, as though writing them in his mind as he spoke. He didn't want to influence her answer. The proposition deserved thoughtful consideration. She may be lonely for a while, and now unable to travel much due to the threat of his enemy. If not for that reason, then for the bitter cold. Not to mention the impending blizzard. Last night's snow was a mere dusting compared to the storm on the way.</p><p>Naturally, and without the slightest hesitation, Rin decided to leave with Sesshomaru.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0297"><h2>297. Decided</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rin's mind had long been made.</p><p>Nevermind learning of his plan to have a house built for her while they slept in the wild together without shelter. She was just waiting for him to stop talking.</p><p>Sesshomaru watched Rin lift a loose plank from the floor, under which was a bundle of some kind. But then a flash of pink, and he realized what she packed inside a linen sack was one of the kimonos he had given her.</p><p>"So," Rin wondered, "when do we leave?"</p><p>"Soon," he said. "Jaken will arrive with A-un."</p><p>"I've missed them." Rin stopped what she was doing. She gave Sesshomaru a side-long glance once, twice. "But you know," she started to say, "if we have to leave so soon I don't see why I just can't ride on <em>your </em>back."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0298"><h2>298. Useful Things</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sesshomaru shut his mouth.</p><p>No, he wasn't sure how to respond to that.</p><p>He was staring at Rin in a kind of dumb awe, caught in a quiet self-consciousness caused by the look in her eyes. She seemed mesmerized by the thought, by him transformed.</p><p>—and he supposed she could ride at the base of his neck, where the neck comes out the shoulder. The fur there was more than long enough to grip firmly in her hands. Anything but dignified. But he also supposed he could manage to maintain a dignity that was almost proud if he was to lower his head to the ground for her.</p><p>Rin could always tell when Sesshomaru was thinking hard about something because he would never blink. "You don't change very often, do you."</p><p>He never did. Hard to slip silently into the night when having all four paws on the ground also meant peering over the trees.</p><p>"Thumbs are useful things," he said.</p><p>Now Rin burst into laughter. He was deadly serious and she laughed some more.</p><p>Kaede, however, was silent.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0299"><h2>299. Guarded</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sitting with her back to them, neither Sesshomaru nor Rin could see Kaede's gentle smile.</p><p>The demon will be as good a husband as a woman might wish, she thought. This she was absolutely sure of. Those who considered him cold will probably remain to do so. But inside of him was concealed passion that was jealously guarded; expressed outwardly only by a delicacy with which he treated Rin to generously.</p><p>He cannot help himself. The weather was still warm when she told Rin this.</p><p>A discussion that was neither here nor there, however.</p><p>Perhaps when he settled his business with that unruly demon.</p><p>Perhaps, she thought then, in the spring.</p><p>In any case, she was content to warm her aching hands by the fire.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yeah, you know what's coming. We're getting there. Slowly but surely ;)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0300"><h2>300. Fathomless</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A heavy robe and a pair of boots were presented to Rin when Jaken arrived. Of course she needed these items to stop the cold already cutting through her clothing. But she could only stand there in the snow, marveling at the kimono in her arms. It was a brilliant golden color that shimmered, and more luxurious than the one she wore. Far more.</p><p>"Oh, Sesshomaru," she said, stunned. "You didn't have to—"</p><p>His brows were suddenly furrowed. "Don't," he said.</p><p>Sesshomaru didn't want to hear it. In every fiber of his being was a necessity of providing, and he'd give her anything within his power and beyond. So he thought little of what she could give in return. He desired to excite happiness in her and for her to let it happen.</p><p>Though his eyes, still as they were and staring down at her blushing face, were almost fathomless.</p><p>Rin fell even more thoroughly in love with him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0301"><h2>301. Birds and Cats</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They would fly.</p><p>Sesshomaru led them, sharp-eyed and vigilant. Fur stretched out long behind him, giving the illusion of swirling clouds. Rin watched him until her eyes watered against the wind and his image blurred.</p><p>A-un swung his legs in full stride, gliding effortlessly along.</p><p>Jaken looked over his shoulder at Rin. "My condolences for your horse."</p><p>"Thank you."</p><p>"Will you have another?"</p><p>Rin looked up from her lap and caught Sesshomaru turning his gaze away from her. She shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Maybe it won't be a horse. Maybe some other animal."</p><p>"Ah, yes. Songbirds. Or perhaps a cat."</p><p>"Or a dog."</p><p>Jaken stiffened and immediately began to stammer. "I-I fear my Lord would loathe the smell."</p><p>"You really think so?"</p><p>"Rin, please…"</p><p>Sesshomaru was staring again, but only at Jaken this time.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0302"><h2>302. Barrier</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As they began their descent, Rin felt the air push and expand around her. It was as though they passed through some invisible force. "Master Jaken," she said.</p><p>"You can feel the barrier." He sounded proud. "I'm glad."</p><p>Rin didn't know Jaken was capable of such a thing. She smiled. It was a precaution for her sake. "You've been working so hard."</p><p>A-un flew low to the forest floor.</p><p>At the sight of them, a fox arrested mid-step, then lashed its tail once and scurried off. Rin looked right and saw a stream, a stag lowering its head to the water. There were small bridges and also walkways she could just make out under the snow. She couldn't remember when the paths started, or how much of it was natural, and how much was demon-made. But when the bare trees came into view, wisterias and sakuras of all sizes, she realized they were flying through a massive garden.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Inspired by Yashahime.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0303"><h2>303. Red Tiles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They stood on the path leading to the house.</p><p>Sesshomaru was silent.</p><p>Rin stood around as if transported to another realm.</p><p>It wasn't much a house as it was a small palace. Its roof was covered with red tiles so vivid they didn't seem real. Three pavilions attached to its wings, each with long verandas that thrust into the garden. To the east stretched the smallest pavilion. A lake-viewing structure so close to the edge one was sure to be relaxed by the sound of water flowing against its pillars.</p><p>Rin closed her mouth. "I don't know what to say. I'm speechless."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0304"><h2>304. Chests</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaken began to walk then stopped. Rin hadn't moved yet. "Come along," he told her. "There are chests for you to sort through."</p>
<p>"Chests?" Rin's mind ran away from her again. All of her worldly possessions scarcely filled a sack, never mind a chest. "How many?"</p>
<p>"They clutter several rooms," Sesshomaru said, and rather dryly.</p>
<p>Rin was speechless again, but only for a moment. Sesshomaru was moving in the opposite direction—back the way they came. She knew he had his reasons but called out to him anyway. "Won't you come inside with me?"</p>
<p>Fur obscured all but his eyes and hair when he glanced over his shoulder. "Tonight," he said, before flying away.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sesshomaru's an outside dog, Rin. He'll be back though.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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